Gutters or guttering on houses is designed to be very strong and to withstand years of abuse from the weather and seasons.

It is known of course by the manufacturers of gutters that they will inevitably need to be cleaned out at some point in their lives .

Guttering surrounds the edges or the perimeter of a house, it does a great job of collecting rainwater that falls on the roof, collecting it and transporting it to a drain pipe or water butt.

So therefore, it is built to be pretty strong and for ladders to be leaned against it.

When it is safe to lean a ladder against a gutter

If the house you live in is new or is fairly new less than 10 years old, you shouldn’t have any worry as to whether the gutter is strong enough the support your ladder.

If you house is older than this, first do a visual inspection of the guttering to see if it looks stable. Lean the ladder against the gutter and apply gentle pressure – look for any movement, wobbling or signs of weakness.

If you see any of the above, be cautious and consider not leaning the ladder against the gutter.

If your gutter seems strong and sturdy. Find a balanced position for the ladder leaning against the gutter and step onto the first rung of the ladder. If it still seem ok, proceed to climb one rung at a time.

Always be observant of the gutter and the brackets that hold the gutter in place. At the first sign that the gutter could become dangerous, safely climb down the ladder and either find place where you can safely climb without having to lean against the gutter or consider using a different ladder.

Potential Danger

When should I not trust that I can lean a ladder against the gutter?

If you guttering or house is quite old – if the plastic of the guttering is tarnished, looks brittle or worn in any way. Take EXTRA care when planning to lean a ladder against it.

When a ladder is leant against a surface, a percentage of the climbers weight is pushed through the ladder onto the object it is leaning against.

When guttering is particularly old or potentially damaged – this force and pressure of the ladder could cause the plastic gutter to crack or break.

If there is any wobble or movement or sounds of cracking or crumbling when you place the ladder against the gutter and step onto the first rung then do not continue and try to find an alternative way to access the gutters.

Worst Case Scenario.

The gutter cracks when you are on the ladder which is leaning against it. You loose your balance or footing and fall.

If any damage is caused to he guttering, whether on your own property when doing DIY or on a clients property if you are a window cleaner for example. It would be a pain to have to repair or find a new piece of guttering to replace a cracked portion.

Gutters on a house serve in transporting large amounts of water away from the property. A crack or leak in guttering can allow water to gather or to pour onto an area of the house – possibly leading to a damp area if not rectified.

The post Is it safe to lean a ladder against a gutter? appeared first on Ladder Review.

To meet the standard of UK building regulations, most loft hatches in UK homes have an opening of around 562mm x 726mm.

The most common loft opening size is 562mm x 726mm in the UK. Which is 56.2cm x 72.6cm.

Or 22″ x 30″ in inches.

Other common loft hatch standard sizes are:

450mm x 600mm

600mm x 700mm

700mm x 900mm

Standard loft hatch sizes can only really be used with a traditional extension ladder, that is placed inside the framework of the loft hatch to allow you to climb in and out of the loft.

If you only need to access your loft on rare occasions such as to get Christmas decorations down once a year, this is a good solution and means that you don’t have to worry about modifying the loft hatch to put in a permanent loft ladder.

Store the extension ladder somewhere else, ideally in the garage or shed if you have one, on some strong ladder storage hooks.

(Just remember to be careful when carrying the ladder upstairs to the loft hatch that you try not to knock the walls with the ladder, leaving a scuff mark on your painted wall like I have done numerous times!)

If your loft is used frequently, or if you just like the idea of the convenience of having a pre installed loft ladder that you can just pull down to use, you may benefit from installing a permanent loft ladder.

I will talk about pull down loft ladders in more depth in another post.

Including useful information like the different types of pull down loft ladder, price points, and how easy (or difficult!) it is to install one.

The post Are Loft Hatches a Standard Size? appeared first on Ladder Review.