Safety
Securing a ladder: how to stop it sliding away
· 5 min read
This explains the rules that apply in the Netherlands.
Most ladder accidents do not start with a misstep but with a ladder that moves. Four ways to prevent it, and which one fits which job.
Not falling, but sliding
Ask people how a ladder accident happens and they picture someone losing their balance. In practice it usually goes differently: the ladder itself moves. The foot slides away over a wet paving slab, or the top slips sideways along a smooth gutter edge while you reach to the left.
That difference matters, because it means you remove the biggest risk before you touch the first rung.
First the angle, then the rest
A ladder stands correctly at roughly 75 degrees. The rule of thumb: a quarter of the supported length as the distance to the wall. If the ladder rests four metres up the facade, the foot stands one metre out from the wall.
You can check it without a tape measure. Put your toes against the ladder stiles and stretch your arms straight forward. If your palms touch the rung at shoulder height exactly, the angle is right. Too steep and the ladder tips backwards as soon as you shift your weight outwards. Too shallow and the foot slides away.
When climbing onto a roof or platform, let the ladder extend at least a metre above the roof edge. Otherwise you have nothing to hold on to at the moment you step across, and that is exactly the moment things go wrong.
Four ways to secure it
In order of how reliable they are.
- Tying off at the top. A strap or rope around both stiles, fixed to an anchor point. This is the strongest solution and the only one that holds both sideways and backwards. Drawback: you have to be up there to attach it, which is precisely the risk you wanted to avoid.
- A clamp or grip on the gutter edge. It grips the gutter and holds the top in place. You also fit it at the top, but that is much quicker than tying the ladder off. Do check that it suits your gutter: the LockJaw, for example, has to grip under the lip of a metal gutter and is not intended for plastic gutters.
- A ladder hook or ridge hook. For work on a pitched roof you hook the ladder over the ridge or over the roof edge. The ladder can then no longer slide sideways or downwards.
- A stabiliser bar at the foot. It makes the ladder wider at the bottom, so it is far less likely to topple. Since the standard was revised, that bar comes as standard on new ladders over three metres.
What does not work
Three things you see often and are better off leaving alone:
- Someone holding the ladder. That only helps against the foot sliding on a short job at limited height. Once the ladder really starts to move, nobody stops it.
- A stone or a piece of wood against the foot. It shifts along as soon as force comes onto it.
- A bit of string to the downpipe. A downpipe is fixed with brackets that were never made to hold a person plus a ladder.
The ground counts just as heavily
A perfectly secured ladder on the wrong ground is still unsafe. Watch out for sand and gravel, for wet leaves, for smooth tiles and for ground that slopes. On a slope, use a ladder with adjustable feet rather than packing it up with whatever happens to be lying around.
What should be in the van
For anyone who is on a ladder daily this is the minimum: anti-slip feet that are not yet worn, a strap to tie off with, and a clamp or hook that suits the work you usually do. Together that costs less than a single day of standstill after an accident.