Climbing up and down ladders all day is certainly good exercise, but even if you're not a professional ladder user you can still reap some fitness benefits from ladders.  Using the ones you have at home can save you money on fancy gym equipment with a stepladder workout that really pushes your leg workouts to a new level.   Build strength in your glutes with elevated lunges using the bottom rung of the stepladder to rest your front leg on.  Facing the ladder, the extra height gives both legs a more challenging workout and this also calls in your lower abdominal muscles and hip flexors, making it a great exercise for [...]

All height access equipment must conform to very stringent safety standards in order to be released to the market.  Inferior equipment causes accidents and a fall from height is often life changing, if not fatal.  The best way to be sure you're using equipment which meets these standards, is to buy known brands from a reputable supplier like us.  We like a bargain as much as the next person, but buying a ladder that's “fallen off the back of a lorry” is a false economy and an invitation for an accident to happen.   Ladders and other height access equipment have their own safety codes.  For ladders it's EN 131 and for [...]

April Fool's Day is nearly upon us, so we thought we'd see what sort of fun can be had with ladders.  Avid readers will remember the excellent Christmas decoration homage to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where a homeowner set up a scene that looked like someone was clinging to his roof with a ladder apparently fallen to the floor.  This would make an ideal April Fool's day prank for when your employees arrive on site, just make sure you get help setting it up or you might become the victim of your own practical joke. There are a couple of ladder prank videos we have seen where an individual is climbing down [...]

As we approach the warmer weather and the longer days, our attention turns to our gardens and outdoor spaces.  It is likely that we have spent more time socialising outdoors than in previous years, so naturally we will have compiled a long list of jobs we want to complete to improve and maintain our garden spaces. It might be a little early in the year to start thinking about fruit picking, but that doesn't mean it's too early to think about fruit picking ladders.  These specialist ladders are tripods, which have been the preferred style of ladder for garden and orchard work for many years.  The three legs provide more stability on [...]

February's storms saw wind speeds of up to 100mph in some areas, and for many people it was the worst storm since 1987.  The Met Office even issued a rare Red warning due to the extreme winds, and we all saw those videos of people being literally blown off their feet.  Several train services were suspended and people were advised not to travel except in emergencies due to the danger of falling trees and flying debris.  We hope that no-one thought they'd attempt to climb a ladder in these conditions, but you may be surprised to know that there isn't a legally set wind speed cap for safe working conditions. Rather [...]

It's a common misconception that firefighters regularly rescue cats stuck up trees – this might be a nice safe rescue story for a children's TV show but real life rarely resembles Fireman Sam.  There is a grain of truth to the idea, however, as the fire service were called to Trowbridge, Wiltshire, earlier this year to rescue a pet owner who had become stuck trying to enact her own rescue.   The woman who was rescued had become stuck over 5 metres up the tree in the course of rescuing her pet parrot.  It is unclear exactly how a bird can become stuck up a tree, but it was clearly concerning [...]

Climbing up a ladder on solid ground can be anxiety inducing for people who don't routinely use ladders, but even for the most seasoned ladder user the thought of climbing a ladder when miles out to sea is just as terrifying.  Sure, there's no hard surface to worry about landing on if you fall but we're not sure dropping into choppy water is any safer.  Add in the high winds and sea spray and the prospect of having to climb up an offshore wind turbine is frankly fear-inducing.   Onshore wind turbine engineers have the relative luxury of being able to ascend inside the turbine pillar; however, this isn't an option [...]

We have huge respect for tree surgeons.  It's a tough job which requires more working at height than almost any other job we can think of (with the exception of high-rise window cleaners).  Tree surgeons work, come rain or shine, and they're often solely responsible for their own safety.  If you're not familiar with tree surgery you'd be forgiven for thinking that ladders are the standard way of accessing trees that need trimming.  While ladders are used for carrying out mid-level surgery, more often than not ropes are used to access the specific, or high up branches that need to be trimmed.   The advantage of a rope system over ladders [...]

Having the proper training in the use of ladders is essential in the workplace – most liability insurance policies require proof of training to keep your policy valid.  Apart from your legal obligations, it is the duty of an employer to provide the necessary training for all staff, whether that's the proper use of step stools for librarians, or the use of scaffold towers and fall arrest systems for construction workers.  If you're a sole trader, you also have a duty to yourself to ensure you have had the proper training so you can stay safe at work – avoidable ladder accidents can put you out of action for months, and [...]

The level of innovation coming from Werner is outstanding – not content with making big safety advances in rope operated ladders with their GlideSafe technology, they have recently announced a new multi-position ladder, the Multi-Max Pro.   This all-singing, all-dancing ladder is a serious contender for the title of most versatile height access equipment against Little Giant, who are known for the 24 position ladders.  There are two versions of the Multi-Max Pro, one which has 25 configurations and another with 34.  These configurations span 5 types of ladder – step ladder, extension ladder, staircase ladder, 90° ladder and double-sided step ladder.  When used as a twin-sided stepladder, two people can [...]