I'm hoping this metre-long pole attached just below the guttering with strong screws to attach rope to will be sufficient to take my weight on the opposite side of the roof (with another carabiner at the top of the roof ladder) 😳
@Hawkwinter The harness is sturdy and has a fall damper thing.
I'm attaching the pole horizontally to the opposite wall using 4x610kg screws, so they definitely won't be the weak point.
The harness rope is 12mm but the extra rope (15m) is 10mm. The latter can handle 150kg.
The roof slope is about 10m long and pretty steep, with a further 6m fall to the ground (I'm using scaffolding to get to the roof). I currently just have the harness rope (10m) attached to the top of the roof ladder, but it's nowhere near strong enough. Letting the rope go through a carabiner at the top may destroy the top of the ladder and possibly a top roof tile in the case of a fall, but I won't be dead...
@Hawkwinter The pole will be installed just below the guttering, avoiding any rubbing under tension (it's 1m long).
The carabiner at the end of the pole and the one at the top are both rated to 160kg.
There's no chance of sliding off the edge as the pole is installed in the middle of the opposite wall, so with the ladder at one end of the roof, and force on the top carabiner would be towards the centre of the roof.
I am just doing one side of the roof due to 10cm hail that destroyed a load of terra cotta tiles on that side.
@Hawkwinter OK, there's a slight risk of going over the edge, but the issue is basically the same as falling down directly. Abseiling down as far as the rope will let me and hoping it's close enough to the ground to be able to jump the rest if I don't get all the way down with the rope.
@Hawkwinter On the top of the roof ladder. It's on the bit that hooks over the roof, which is aluminum and not terribly sturdy, but I'm expecting it to break if I fall. It won't affect the integrity of the rope if I fall though.
@Hawkwinter Well that was pretty fucking scary in retrospect.
This was the most dangerous bit, climbing the roof ladder and throwing the rope over the other side for securing it, before climbing down again using just the ladder as protection (attaching my harness to rungs as I go).
I was climbing the slightly rickety scaffolding (the 10m roof ladder is slightly too long, so the last two metre piece was balancing on the scaffolding, but I needed that extra length to get it high enough to turn around and attach to the top of the roof) and suddenly heard a massive din. Then I saw the ladder flying past me and the bottom end landed on the floor. Only the first 2m piece of the ladder was still attached to the roof. The pins attaching it to the second ladder piece had come out.
If it hadn't done that due to the shaking scaffolding it would have done so as I was climbing it, using the carabiner to attach to a rung that would have fallen. Fuckity fuck.
I'm going to need to attack the roof from the other side (which is shorter) and pull up the 8m (or 6, now it's attached) bit that fell to attach it. Beforehand I'll use straps or something to securely attach the final rungs of two pieces of the ladder. And do the same when attaching it to the top piece that is still there.
The pin design is dangerous. They have a supposed security loop that you click back when the pin is through the ladder side. But they never attach and will be in contact with the roof either when pushing the ladder up (which I did) or after turning it over to attach it, which is its climbing position. The latter risks breaking tiles as the metal loop thingies are proud of the ladder surface. Fucking hell.
@Hawkwinter I guess they rely on the slope friction to stop them working loose, but that's dangerous when pushing the ladder up. I'm a bit shocked, to be honest.
@Hawkwinter I've bought nuts and bolts to replace the pins, and duct tape just to be sure. Now I've got to find out how to bring down the last 2m bit of roof ladder attached to the top.
I've got a couple of ropes attached to it so hopefully I can bump it off so I can fix the whole thing.
@Hawkwinter
The four 2m sections of the roof ladder that fell wouldn't come apart. I'd already tried separating two sections on the ground using my really heavy flat hydraulic jack (which failed because I had the jack on its side). So I had to go up the scaffolding and, um, jack off the top one (with wood shims) and kept on hammering one side because it was still stuck. Took me about 15 minutes. Then I did the bottom one, which was easier because I could more easily equalise the two above it by just shifting them sideways due to the extra weight. I kept the middle two together because I will be hauling them up two at a time (and to photograph the evidence for a one star review).
Next job is to try to dislodge the top one. Not sure this will work, as the whole point of the roof hook thingy is to not do this.
@Hawkwinter Get some string and tie it to the new rope I've bought, with the other end tied to a small weight. Throw it over from the other side of the roof towards the scaffolding and tie the rope to my counter-balanced pole...
Fix the scaffolding to the wall and tie the rope to it. Then come up the other side of the wall using the now-secured rope to flip the ladder over. Get back down the way I came then go and pull the ladder down from the scaffolding. Attach the new rope to the harness rope through the top of the ladder carabiner (having untied it from the scaffolding) and reassemble the roof ladder using bolts rather than pins, and duct tape around the nearest rungs.
Hopefully then I'll have both a secure ladder and a secure rope connected to my harness.
I'll just be doing the tiles either side of the ladder, then flipping it over twice and doing so again etc.
@Hawkwinter In rural France, in a very old stone house. When I have the cash I'm going to get it totally redone by someone else with hail-resistant tiles (which are hideously expensive).
@davep likely depends on the screws and the angle the rope is hitting. Just remember that gravity is the weakest of all forces and the strong nuclear force will always keep you from falling forever
Add comment