Spring Cleaning With Ladders: Clearing Out Gardens And Lofts

Continuing on from last week’s blog, you may well be planning – or even in the midst of – some odd spring cleaning jobs around the house. As always, ladders and other access equipment are invaluable tools, so we’re back with more helpful tips on how to use them around the house.

Trimming Trees And Clipping Hedges

Our newfound sunshine means that the natural beauty of our greenery is finally starting to come into its own. Flowers are blooming, trees are blossoming and everything’s starting to come up roses (so to speak). This marks a popular time for many homeowners up and down the country to do a bit of light trimming and gardening – just to keep everything in check.

Garden ladders are the ideal choice for anything above ground level, and can provide you with the extra height you need to tackle those unruly branches. Amongst these, freestanding ladders are best. Unlike concrete or masonry, trees or greenery can make potentially unreliable surface to lean a ladder against, so a freestanding one will be far safer (and more useful).

When setting up your ladder, remember to always put it on an even and stable surface. Maintaining your balance is vital to good ladder safety, and obviously the higher you go, the more careful you need to be. If a stable surface isn’t available, there are some ladders which can compensate for this – such as our 3-leg adjustable aluminium tripod ladders. These have adjustable legs, so that even if you’re working on a steep slope you can still provide yourself with a stable surface from which to work.

Remember that golden ladder rule; keep your hips inside the guardrail at all times in order to keep your balance. Statistically, most dangerous falls actually happen closer to the ground (when people aren’t paying proper attention), making it all the more important to be alert when descending the ladder.

Clearing Out The Attic

This is another major springtime job, which can sometimes end up being a big one if it’s been a few years since you last did it. Naturally, loft ladders are in their element here, and can offer a huge number of advantages over traditional wooden ladders, both in terms of safety and convenience. They provide quick and easy access with almost total stability and a drastically reduced chance of slipping on the ground.

Even though they make your safer, though, they can only go so far. Mostly, guaranteeing your safety is solely down to you. Always take your time, and make sure you’re never carrying something that means you’re exceeding the total weight of the ladder. Ideally, clearing out your loft should be a two to three man job. If you can enlist the help of others, you can pass boxes and other objects up and down safely, rather than trying to carry it all down yourself. This opens you up to the risk of not maintaining the three vital points of contact with a ladder – one of the leading causes of falls.

As a final word of advice – remember, always choose the right ladder for the job. Choosing an incorrect ladder can be not just inconvenient, but also unsafe.

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