onderhoud
The thirty-second ladder check: six things before you climb
· 4 min read
This explains the rules that apply in the Netherlands.
The annual inspection says nothing about yesterday's damage. Six checks you can do in half a minute, and what to do when one of them fails.
An inspection is a snapshot
An inspected ladder is not the same as a safe ladder. The periodic inspection says something about the day the inspector came round. It says nothing about the knock the ladder took last week when it fell off the roof of the van, and nothing about the paint that has been on the rungs since Tuesday.
That is why practice says the same thing as the rules: you check a ladder before every use. It costs you half a minute.
1. The feet
Turn the ladder over and look at the rubbers. Are they worn round, split or gone hard? Is one missing? Anti-slip feet are the part that wears out first and at the same time the part that stops the ladder sliding away. They can be ordered separately, so this is never a reason to scrap a ladder.
2. The rungs or treads
Run your hand along the rungs. If you feel dirt, grease, paint or ice, clean it off before you climb. Then twist a few rungs: if one feels loose in the stile, the ladder goes out of service. A rung that moves is not going to tighten itself up again.
3. The stiles
Sight along the ladder the way you would check a plank for straightness. Look for a kink, a dent, a bend or a crack. Aluminium that has been bent is weakened, even if it still looks solid. On a wooden ladder also look for splinters and lengthwise cracks.
4. Hinges and locks
On a folding or telescopic ladder this is the most important point. Open or extend it fully and check that every lock engages audibly and noticeably. If one sticks, or you have to force it into place, that ladder is finished until it has been repaired.
5. The rope and the guides
On an extension ladder, pull out a length of rope and check that it is not fraying. Check that the guides and the hooks of the top section are not bent, and that the top section does not extend further than it should.
6. The labels
Sounds like a formality, but it is not one. The ladder should carry the marking with its type and standard, and on an inspected ladder also the sticker with the last inspection date. Once that has become unreadable, you cannot demonstrate after an accident that the ladder was in order.
Something is wrong. Now what?
Two rules you impose on yourself and your crew:
- Out of service means out of service. Do not put it back in the van thinking you will just be careful with it. Tag it or take it off site, so a colleague does not end up grabbing it anyway.
- A ladder that has fallen over or fallen from height goes for inspection first. Even if you can see nothing wrong. A deformation of a few millimetres in the stile is invisible to the naked eye, and it is there.
Make it a habit
Anyone who does this once a day while unloading stops noticing they are doing it within a week. That is exactly the point: the check you carry out automatically is the only one you also carry out on the day you are in a hurry.