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New ladder stabiliser invented by construction veteran

Wendy Rudd March 23, 2018 0

55-year-old Robert Loucks has been in construction all his working life, and ladders have featured heavily in his work; he has first-hand experience of falling off a ladder and has spent several years pondering a solution to the problem of unstable ladders. Although he has been formulating the idea for 15 years, his impending retirement has seen him spring into action with designing and patenting his ladder stabiliser, which he hopes will give him a comfortable retirement income.His ladder stabiliser comprises of a bracket which mounts to the side of a house and clips on to the rungs of any straight ladder, keeping it firmly in place at the base. When the ladder is affixed it cannot move at the base, meaning it cannot move at the top either. The bracket can be angled from side to side, ...

Safer loft access

Wendy Rudd March 09, 2018 0

Getting stored items in and out of the attic is a job normally reserved for a weekend or another free day, when adequate care and attention can be given to the task at hand. Climbing a ladder is never a risk-free endeavour, but when you are also carrying items up or down with you it is impossible to maintain three points of contact with the ladder, making it much more dangerous. For this reason, it is vital that you take your time and have another person present to hand you items and take them from you, reducing the amount of time you are not in proper contact with the ladder. Having a safe and sturdy loft ladder makes storage retrieval much safer, and ideally your loft ladder will have a handrail and a less acute angle than a standard straight ladder. That angle can make all the differ...

Paramedic designs ladder stabiliser

Wendy Rudd March 02, 2018 0

Health professionals are often the first people to deal with the aftermath of a ladder accident and they see so many, that they are often more well equipped to make safety improvements than ladder designers, seeing first-hand what actually goes wrong in the real world. A paramedic, in Australia, has designed a safety accessory for extension ladders that will make them safer for domestic users and reduce the number of accidents caused by ladders being improperly secured at the top. David Kay came up with the initial concept around 16 years ago, but was astounded to learn that no-one else had dreamt up the same notion when he recently started serious work on prototypes and patents with engineer friend Daniel Seidel. The Lacket, as it is called, affixes to the ladder and can be left in plac...

Why checking your ladder regularly is a good idea?

Wendy Rudd February 23, 2018 0

A 61-year-old woman from New Hampshire, USA, had a scary experience recently when her pool ladder broke leaving her stranded in the water for three hours. Leslie Kahn had been enjoying a dip in her back garden when the ladder broke as she tried to exit the pool. She injured her knee in the accident and could not get out of the pool unaided. After realising she was stuck, she used a pool skimming net on a long pole to reach her iPad, which was on a recliner near to the pool. She posted a message on social media, alerting friends and neighbours to her plight and was rescued by neighbours shortly before the police arrived, also having been alerted thanks to her Facebook message. Sadly, it is not uncommon for people to incur injuries or become stranded (perhaps on a roof or in a swimming p...

When is a ladder not a ladder?

Wendy Rudd February 16, 2018 0

A ladder is a means of accessing something which is at height: whether that is a window or guttering to clean, a high shelf or cupboard, or even a roof terrace, or attic conversion. The humble ladder is the obvious choice for reaching destinations that are located high up, but sometimes there is a better way, especially in the case of loft conversions, mezzanine floors and roof terraces. Instead of using a ladder, a spiral or spacesaver staircase could be the answer; allowing for access but in a more comfortable manner than by a ladder. In a home setting, you may well encounter guests who are nervous about climbing ladders and you would not want them to miss out on the fun of your roof terrace or entertainment area, so a spacesaver staircase is the best solution. They are also easier f...

Ladder roof racks

Wendy Rudd February 09, 2018 0

A recent viral video showed two men in Florida transporting a ladder on their car. Unremarkable, you may think, until you see the clip. They don't have a roof rack, but instead both men are sitting on the same side of the car, one behind the driver. They both have an arm out of the window, holding the ladder down on the roof. It seems that they had a good grip because there are no reports of a ladder being found on the road; given the high number of such incidents, it is quite something that they did not accidentally let go and send the ladder flying in to traffic.A roof rack is essential for transporting a ladder. Without one it is impossible to properly secure your ladder to the outside of the vehicle, which may get you in trouble with the police. Simply tying a ladder to the frame...

Ladders and storage – where the two meet

Wendy Rudd February 02, 2018 0

Library ladders are a perennial favourite of interior designers; stylish, classic and indicative of sophistication they are often made a feature of rooms but they have a practical use as well. Although bookcases are designed for book storage many people use shelving as storage for other items such as: DVDs, clothing, entertainment systems and even towels and linen. One house in Yokohama, Japan, has been designed with shelving at the forefront of the design, with a double height wall entirely lined with shelves across the entire width of the house. Despite the fact that the shelves line an entire double height wall, the residents have no need of a library ladder.The innovative shelving design slopes backwards and indeed the outside of the house reflects the lean, providing some shelter f...

Why you should pay close attention when using a chainsaw and a ladder

Wendy Rudd January 26, 2018 0

It should be obvious that the combination of ladders and chainsaws is a potentially dangerous one, and that extreme caution should be exercised when using the two, but there are still people out there who think they are above the laws of both physics, and health and safety. A video emerged online of a man performing some amateur tree surgery using both the aforementioned pieces of equipment. He was straddling the branch he was cutting off, and had at least ensured he was sitting on the part that was to be left attached to the tree, but had not thought about what would happen to the branch when it fell. The large piece of wood swung back into his ladder, which had been left leaning against the tree, breaking it apart and sending it crashing to the floor. He was then left stranded up the...

Community Ladder sculpture project visits Kingsport

Wendy Rudd January 19, 2018 0

Our favourite artist Charlie Brouwer is at it again with his community ladder sculpture project, Rise Together. It is a travelling installation project, which brings together members of each community it visits, relying on donations of ladders to create the unique sculptures, which remain in place for several weeks in each location. This time he is in Kingsport, Tennessee, where businesses and individuals have all donated ladders to the project. At each location the installation looks different, as the construction depends on the types and colours of ladders that are donated to the project. In Kingsport the Rise Together, artwork stands outside the Renaissance Centre, in the heart of the city, and has attracted around 250 donated ladders, which will either be returned to their owners on...

New Year - New Ladder

Wendy Rudd January 12, 2018 0

If your trusty old step ladder was on its last legs over the festive period and you don't think it will make it to next year then now is a great time to replace it. Sales promotions are always worth looking at to pick up a bargain and if you're lucky you can even snap yourself a brand-new ladder, for a bargain price in the New Year sales.It is tempting to just buy the same ladder or the equivalent, after all your old ladder worked perfectly well while it lasted, so why buy something different? Before you go out and purchase, take a moment to reflect and remember any times when you needed to borrow a different ladder for a specific job, or when your last ladder didn't work quite as well as it could have for the task at hand. It's all too easy to forget that changing the hall lightbulb wa...