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Just got a quote for 7k to have our house painted. This has me seriously considering painting it myself. Fortunately I have a good aimless sprayer and the amount of work is not a problem. My problem is there are three areas of the house where a ladder will not reach from ground level due to an extended porch (the gables are set back about 12 feet from the gutters. The pitch is easily walk able and not steep. The height I need to reach is 15 feet above the roof line. Can anyone give me guidance on how to safely reach these areas. I’ve never used a roof jack and don’t understand how to secure them to a roof. Do you attach them by slipping them under the shingles then nail them in place? Wouldn’t that cause a leak? In any event, I was thinking I would use the roof jacks and a board as a brace for a short ladder. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated. Also, should I be using scaffolding?
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d.....
based on your questions.. i would have to guess that you shoudn't be staging this..
think about renting a man-lift...just for the difficult areas..
there are all kinds of ways to stage this.. but most of them require some experience to do it with confidence.. rent the man-lift.. and have them check you out on the operation.. right in their parking lot
b but hey , whadda i no ?
*Mike - appreciate your feedback - that was my initial thought and I called RentX a couple of days before posting to see if they had some type of cherry picker or scissor jack - they informed me anything like that would have to be positioned on concrete and the pricing was ridiculous - I said I thought I had seen smaller units that were being used to paint large barns. He said I was wrong and that units to do what I'm looking for weigh 30,000 pounds. Hence the reason I started to look at jacks. If you can give me any other guidance on the lifts, I'd greatly appreciate it. I know my knees would be less likely to knock in a bucket.Thanks!
*I work for an electrical contractor, we own our bucket truck and rent it out quite frequently, I know the local cable company doe's the same thing, maybe you can find a private company willing to rent.
*around here it would be Nations Rent...but wherever you are... they should have something...another thing is to go to a real paint store .. look at some of the ladder leveling devices the painters use..ask them about man-lifts.. bucket trucks..and paint.....
*I own a 40' manlift (some rental yards appear to call it a "boomlift") which has a maximum load in the two man "basket" when the boom is fully extended of 500 lbs. This unit weighs 12,000 lbs. It does require a rather substantial truck and trailer to move it safely. There are a number of sizes and a couple of styles of manlift/boomlifts available at the rental yards even in my small town here in Oregon. If memery servers, they start around $200 a day for a self propelled, 30 foot articulated boomlift (actually, they may be over 30'). Of course there will be an additional charge for delivery and pickup. I have never heard of a requirement of having them on concrete or pavement - of course you don't want them on really soft ground or on a steep hillside where they could get overbalanced. Mine has lugged tires to negotiate rough ground (slowly). I have also seen manlifts built on trailers which I would guess are less expensive and wouldn't require delivery if you had a decent sized pickup. Of course, they would be more difficult to position and move during the course of the job. A site that has some thumbnail pictures of various manlift/boomlifts (unfortunately, none list prices):http://www.boomlift.com/rentals.htma picture of the trailer mounted boomlift:http://www.renosrentals.com/lifts.htm#manliftsThe primary rental chain in this area is United Rentals, there prices are higher than some of the others but they have lots of equipment (just thought I would throw this in because they were helpful at giving me some free info on fixing my manlift...) United Rentals Boomlifts
*Thanks to all of you for steering me in the right direction! I have nothing but praise for the way all of you offer your expertise and ideas.Thanks again!
*A manlift would be the way to go, providing you can set the thing up on fairly level, hard ground. I've used manlifts for years, and very rarely ever had the luxury of setting one up on a concrete surface.Also, so long as overhead wires will not be a problem, use the manlift; otherwise it will be a no go. You cannot let your boom or bucket get too close to power lines.Someone mentioned a scissor type lift. I would recommend you stay away from that type of lift if going over 15 feet in height. These type don't seem near as stable to me and are more prone to tipping.Our local rental store carries a small manlift manufactured by Genie. It's a 2 man bucket lift and goes for $150.00 a day. This includes the delivery to and from your site.If you go this route, do make sure they give you some training on the thing before you use it for real. They are rather easy to operate, but nothing beats hands-on training. Some manlifts require you to activate out-riggers on them for stability; others do not have this. Some machines will automatically shut down if you try to put the boom into too steep of a position; you must lower the boom before the machine will respond again. Most machines have back-up emergency power in case you run out of gasoline (or diesel, depending upon brand of machine). Most machines are wired with a "dead-man" pedal that must be depressed at all times in order to operate manuevers; otherwise , again the machine won't respond to control inputs. Get my drift....know what to expect before going up.If you go this route, most machines have two control speeds; slow (Turtle) and fast (Rabbit). Until you get used to it, operate in the slow (Turtle) mode. It will give you plenty of time to react, and should help keep your bucket from bouncing too much.Good luck. Work safe and be safe. Davo.
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Just got a quote for 7k to have our house painted. This has me seriously considering painting it myself. Fortunately I have a good aimless sprayer and the amount of work is not a problem. My problem is there are three areas of the house where a ladder will not reach from ground level due to an extended porch (the gables are set back about 12 feet from the gutters. The pitch is easily walk able and not steep. The height I need to reach is 15 feet above the roof line. Can anyone give me guidance on how to safely reach these areas. I've never used a roof jack and don't understand how to secure them to a roof. Do you attach them by slipping them under the shingles then nail them in place? Wouldn't that cause a leak? In any event, I was thinking I would use the roof jacks and a board as a brace for a short ladder. Any guidance will be greatly appreciated. Also, should I be using scaffolding?