@Wolfpup RE; 2nd story storm window changing. My first house (the 1912 house) had 30 of those old wooden windows that were changed from screen to storm window every 6 months. Of course the screens weighed nothing but those storm windows being carried up a 28 foot extension ladder…YIKES
Technology can solve a lot of that concern. And at a very reasonable price. Just sayin’
In my 20s I was a chimney sweep. Spent a lot of time running around on all sorts of roofs like a mountain goat, never had a problem. I’m one year shy of 60 now and just looking up at the roof makes me a little dizzy. But still, sometimes there’s business up on the roof that needs attending to. So, up I scramble, stepladder on my shoulder so I can get to the next level. Missus doesn’t like it, but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
IMHO, what a man’s gotta do, if a man’s got sense, is to climb up that ladder carrying the end of a rope attached to the stepladder, and then haul the stepladder up while having a firm footing on the roof. A safety belt, again, is very recommended. (This advice also applies to non-men.)
Taking sensible safety precautions doesn’t mean one is decrepit, or unmanly.
The average age of trauma patients due to ladder falls was 55 in this study.
Serious injury or death from ladder falls is relatively commonplace in some occupations, like construction.
A youngish guy in our area died awhile back from a fall off a ladder while he was putting up Xmas lights at his house. He was an ER doc.
At what age should you stop climbing ladders? I have reached the point where I use the stair climber instead of the treadmill to save my knees, but I still feel ok climbing the ladder.
Really? I would think it would be the other way around. I find the treadmill much easier than the stair climber, which I think is pure evil.
The Best time to start dancin’ in when you’re headin’ for a fall
I guess it depends on how you are using them. If you use the treadmill to run at least for me that is much harder on my knees than the stair stepper. (The pounding on my knee joints is what I hate.) If I am just walking, they are probably close.
I guess it depends on your point of view. Not to go all Obi Wan on everyone but the stairs burn a lot more calories in a given amount of time, so I prefer them. The stairs take a lot more effort but I would rather do that and get more workout over than do the treadmill for a longer period of time… Thinking about it more, I also knew that was something I needed to work on. When I turned 51 I suddenly noticed that stairs took effort. I suddenly I had to think about it. So I changed my workout, as I knew I needed to work on that.
I’d say, ask your doctor or a physical therapist. I’m early 60s and am planning to continue climbing SAFELY STABILIZED ladders until/unless I experience problems with balance and/or strength that make it unwise.
I’m torn.
I climb as needed at soon to be 67. And I am confident that my balance and strength is up to the task. But then knowing myself I might say that even when it is no longer the case, which it will be at some point if I live so long? Balance and strength do decline with age. Sure those of us who actively do balance and strength routinely as part of our fitness mix can dramatically slow that decline, but the direction is still the direction.
I’m a short person and very cognizant that we of shorter stature tend to live longer, partly because when we fall our heads are not falling from so far a height. Seriously it’s true. A fall tripping on a rug I’d likely survive. Off a ten foot ladder likely not.
I’m a hair’s breadth away from 50, and have been climbing ladders professionally for close to 30 years. 10-foot folding, 28-foot extension, 100-foot aerial, whatever. Climb away. I’d like to say I’m exaggerating by saying I can do it in my sleep, but I’ve been pretty damn close to just that more times than I care to admit.
My only funny ladder story - doing some work on the roof of the breezeway we used to have. Maybe 9 feet to the gutter. I had a 24-foot extension ladder up to the edge, fully retracted, and was kneeling on the pitched roof doing something to the peak. I look next to me, back towards the ladder, and my dog is standing on the roof with me. A 6 year old female Labrador. She had been in the backyard, saw Dad on the roof and figured he must need help, so she climbed up to join me. I paused my roof work, carried her down, and put her back in the house. God she was an amazing dog.
If my dog can work off of a ladder, so can I. At least until my knees finally call it quits.
Which makes me feel that I made the right choice in having my Ukrainian handyman brothers* send an electrician to replace my light bulbs, even though they charged professional electrician fees for it.
* They’re really not “handymen”, most of their business is renovation, so they really know what they’re doing, and the electrician they sent also replaced three wired smoke alarms. In the large scheme of things the cost wasn’t really all that great, especially compared to me falling off a ladder head-first, and all the funeral expenses it would have entailed!
Don’t the Ukrainians change light bulbs with drones these days?
My rope and extending pole method works wonders. The screens I just lower with a rope from inside but getting the storms up is a bit more of a production. I don’t care about the extra steps because the ladder hasn’t left the garage in going on six years.
I’m now in my seventies, and decided a few years ago that I was no longer doing the annual climb up onto the roof to hang Christmas lights. I still put them around the garage and front door, and around the inside of the front windows, none of which requires any ladder climbing. About the only climbing I do these days as going up two steps on a stepladder to get the bird feeders down for refilling.
KCB615’s story reminded me of a cat we had several decades ago. I heard noises in the attic and got out the stepladder, climbed up and opened the access hatch and was shining a flashlight around to see if there were any critters there. Suddenly, the cat slipped up the ladder in front of me and jumped into the attic, reappearing a couple of minutes later with a mouse in her mouth, and went back down the ladder. I jumped down and let her out to deal with her prize. After that, she always showed up if she saw me with a ladder, and several times climbed the extension ladder onto the roof, just in case there were any mice there. She wouldn’t go back down the extension ladder, though, and would sit in the bit of roof over the back porch and complain until I got out the stepladder for her.
Smart cat!