The day my ladder decided to take a nap on a customer's prize rose bush

Last Wednesday I set up my 28-footer on what I thought was solid ground near a lady's garden in Portland and the whole thing folded sideways like a cheap lawn chair, crushing her $400 heirloom roses, so I had to finish the install sitting on the dirt while she watched and wrote down my boss's number on a sticky note. Anyone else ever have a ladder fail on you during a simple drop?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_max1mo ago

Man, I gotta push back on this one a little. I’ve been using ladders for 20 years and a 28-footer folding sideways like that sounds like it wasn’t set up right. Either the spreaders weren’t locked or the feet were on loose dirt or a slope. Those heirloom roses are a bummer for sure, but I’ve dropped a ladder onto a customer’s brand new concrete driveway once because I rushed the setup and the whole thing just slid out. After that I always check the ground twice and lock every joint before climbing a single rung. Maybe your boss’s number was fair but that ladder failure was probably more about the ground than the ladder itself.

jennyp191mo ago

Oh man, hard disagree there. A 28-footer doesn't just fold sideways unless something was really off, but honestly sometimes the ground just betrays you. I've had a ladder sink into what looked like solid dirt before, just a tiny bit of soft spot under the grass. Not every failure is user error. Sometimes the rose bush just has bad luck.