That attic access job in July near Tulsa changed my ladder approach

I was swapping a dryer vent hose last summer in a 140 degree attic. The hatch was in a tight hallway and I had my 6 foot step stool out. I slipped coming down and landed on my back on the tile. Took me a solid 5 minutes to catch my breath. Has anyone else switched to a platform ladder after a close call like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_julia1mo ago

Are you really sure this is THAT big of a deal? I mean yeah falling hurts and nobody wants to land on their back but are we really talking about throwing out a perfectly good step stool over one slip? Sometimes people get too quick to blame their gear instead of themselves. Maybe you just had a bad moment or your shoes were slick or the floor was dusty. I've taken my fair share of tumbles off ladders and stools over the years and I just got back up and moved on. Seems like a lot of fuss for something that could've been a simple mistake.

the_julia1mo ago

Hang on, I actually disagree with myself from earlier here lol. I had a similar close call a few years ago with a 6 foot step stool on a concrete floor and my back still acts up in cold weather. The problem with step stools is that center of gravity thing gets real sketchy when you're twisting to pull stuff out of an attic hatch. I switched to a little 2 foot platform ladder with the wide top and it made a huge difference because you can actually stand centered over the base instead of teetering. Your tile floor slip could've been a lot worse than just catching your breath, and a platform ladder forces you to keep both feet planted instead of that one foot on the top step nonsense.