Old timer in Denver told me ladder setup is overrated... I learned the hard way

I was installing a panel in a nasty crawlspace last month and this guy I met at the supply house said he never uses a ladder for residential work, just gets creative with boxes and straps. I figured he knew his stuff since he had 30 years in the trade. So I tried his method on a vaulted ceiling job in a house near downtown Denver. After 20 minutes of balancing on a stack of milk crates and a stepladder with a busted leg, I slipped and dropped my whole drill set into a fish tank below. Lesson learned: some advice sounds good but just get the proper ladder every time. How do you guys handle tight spots where a ladder wont fit right?

3 comments

3 Comments

young.thomas3d ago

You seriously stacked milk crates on a busted stepladder for a vaulted ceiling. That's not getting creative, that's just asking for a trip to the urgent care. The fish tank part is rough though, hopefully it was empty or the fish were tough. Next time just spend the twenty bucks on a proper ladder rental instead of learning from the guy who probably got his advice from a cartoon.

henryt183d ago

Man, that's a rough way to learn the lesson. I actually read somewhere that a lot of older guys pick up bad habits just from years of "making it work" rather than the right way. Maybe it's just me but that milk crate trick sounds like a nightmare waiting to happen, hope your drill set survived okay.

nathankim1d ago

Ngl, I kinda see it different though. That old timer probably saved his back on a hundred jobs with that method, just got unlucky one time. I've rigged some janky setups before and honestly a lot of the time it beats hauling a 12 footer through someone's hallway.