Ladder Choices for Sprinkler Fitters

Ladder Choices for Sprinkler Fitters

Sprinkler work is overhead work, which is the posture a stepladder handles worst. A fitter spends the day with both hands on a wrench above his head, and the ladder has to hold that for hours rather than a minute.

Head Height Decides the Tool

Most DFW tenant finish-outs put sprinkler heads at ten to twelve feet, and a warehouse at twelve to fourteen. On a job like that an eight foot stepladder puts the hands at the right height but the hips at six, so every coupling is a reach instead of work in front of the chest.

Our Werner Type IA fiberglass stepladder in the 8 foot size is $189 and handles drops, branch lines and head changes near a wall. It is the right second ladder on a job, rarely the right first one.

Platform Ladders for Sustained Overhead Work

A platform ladder solves the reach problem, not by being taller but by letting a fitter stand square inside a guarded platform with a tool tray at waist height. The Louisville Pinnacle platform ladder is $270.88 in the 6 foot platform size, which puts the platform about six feet up and the working height near twelve, exactly where a pipe run sits.

For an eight foot platform the same ladder runs $357.67, and that is the size most often loaded on a service van doing head replacements in offices and schools.

The platform also gives somewhere to set a pipe wrench and a box of heads. Climbing a stepladder with both hands full is how a fitter ends up working one-handed at the top rung.

Height is not the only variable. A head set close to a wall can be reached from a stepladder set parallel to it, while the same head in the middle of a room needs a platform on all four sides. Walk the run before the ladder comes off the truck and the trip back is avoided.

Two Fitters on One Main

A main line long enough to matter usually has two people on it, one at each end, and a single stepladder turns that into a relay. A Louisville twin stepladder in the 6 foot size is $258.85 and climbs from both sides, so two fitters work the same length of pipe at the same height instead of one standing on the floor waiting.

A twin costs more than two ordinary stepladders and takes the same footprint on the truck, which is the trade worth making when the crew is paid by the hour.

Racks, High Heads and Rolling Work

In-rack sprinklers in a distribution center are the one job where neither a stepladder nor a platform ladder reaches. The heads sit at rack level and the aisles are too tight for a frame scaffold, which leaves a rolling tower as the practical answer.

Our rolling steel scaffold tower starts at $849 for the 5 foot 8 inch frame, $999 for the 10 foot 9 inch, and $1,199 for the 15 foot 10 inch, each with a guard rail on all four sides. It rolls between rack bays, locks, and gives a fitter a full platform rather than a perch.

Outfitting a Sprinkler Crew

A working sprinkler kit is one platform ladder, one twin stepladder for two-man work, one eight foot fiberglass stepladder for tight spots, and a rolling tower for rack work. That covers tenant finish, head replacement and warehouse jobs in DFW.

Tell us the ceiling height and whether the work is in a rack aisle and we will put the list together.

Everything ships from 5030 Dexham Rd. Ste. 103 in Rowlett, TX, and local crews can pick up the same day. Call 972-331-1090 and we will tell you what is on the floor right now.