Blog

Holiday Light Installation: Ladders for Roofline Work Holiday light work happens in the worst conditions of the year: short days, cold hands, wet lawns, and a roofline the customer will look at every night for six weeks. Most of the risk sits at the ladder rather than up on the roof, and almost all of it is predictable. How Much Ladder a Two-Story Eave Actually Takes A two-story DFW house usually carries its eave between 18 and 22 feet, with a gable peak higher than that. Reaching it means the …

Guide to Ladder Buying for a New Crew The first ladder purchase a new crew makes tends to be whatever is on sale at the nearest store, and it tends to get replaced within a year. Buying the right four ladders once costs about the same as buying the wrong ones twice and spending a season working around gaps. The Four Ladders That Cover Most Work A commercial crew needs a short stepladder for low interior work, a taller stepladder for ceilings and racking, an extension ladder for roofline and ext …

Guide to Ladders for Plumbers and Mechanical Trades Plumbing and mechanical work happens in the awkward places on a job - between joists, above a ceiling grid, in a shaft with a wall on one side, or in a mechanical room where the floor is the only flat surface. The ladder that suits that work is not the same one a framing crew carries, and picking wrong shows up as an hour a day lost to repositioning. Rough-In: Extension and Short Stepladders Rough-in work is reach and repositioning. An extensi …

Guide to Ladder Wear Parts: Feet, Shoes, Ropes and Pulleys A ladder is a wear item built from parts that are meant to be replaced. The frame lasts years; the feet, shoes, rope, pulleys and rungs do not. Knowing which parts you can swap and which ones end the ladder's life is what decides whether a crew replaces a part or buys a whole ladder four times as often as it needs to. Feet and Shoes The feet are the most neglected part on any ladder and the most common reason a ladder slides on a smooth …

Guide to Ladders for Painting Contractors Painting work is a standing-still job, not a climbing job, so the setup matters more than the ladder. A crew that has to come down every ten minutes loses an hour a day. The DFW painting contractors we supply at Dallas Ladder in Rowlett run a standard kit: an extension ladder for height, ladder jacks and planks for runs, and a small rolling scaffold for interiors. Exterior Walls and Long Runs For a two-story exterior, start with a fiberglass extension l …