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An alternative to a ladder

Chuck Miller, special-issues editor

12 users recommend

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I love to work on our house. I don’t even mind working on the roof, but I have to admit, I really don’t like ladders very much. So before I started the dormer project to improve our upstairs bedrooms, I spent a few hours building the staircase shown here. It’s steeper than a regular staircase, but it was really easy to get up and down. The handrails, which are a little less steep than the stair, made an excellent track for delivering sheet goods to the roof. I could put a full sheet of plywood across the rails, and just push it on up as I climbed the treads. Full control--no problem.

I probably went up and down this rig a thousand times during this project, and I expect the time I saved not fussing with a ladder more than made up for the time it took to build the thing.

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Building a Block wall using Joint Spacers

Comments (3)

cmiller writes: StevenAL,
to your question: I stripped the old roof off, repointed the chimney, installed new flashings and vents and re-roofed the entire building during the dormer project--and I expect I am forgetting stuff too.
Chuck
Posted: 4:07 pm on February 5th

StevenAL writes: yOU WENT UP AND DOWN A THOUSAND TIMES?!? To build a dormer ... did you keep forgetting stuff or what?
Posted: 12:26 pm on January 26th

MFournier writes: Sure works great but you are only going up what maybe 10 feet?
In your case it works great but..
Build a stair that will get you up 3 stories and still be a stable and cost effective.

I still feel the money spent on good staging that is relatively light and easy to set up and take down and transport to the next job is a little more practical then building exterior stairs.

When building a new house we usually build a temporary stair in the same opening that the final finish stair will be.
Posted: 4:23 pm on December 22nd

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