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Ladder or scaffold on wood floor Interior

17K views 41 replies 19 participants last post by  lilpaintchic 
#1 ·
Hey all,

So, I’ve got an interior job, and among the myriad of things I’m doing in there, from cabinets to walls, I need to paint a sloping ceiling main room, think half a triangle.

The front of the room ceiling is about 9-10 feet and it goes up to 17 or so at the tallest of the slant.

The floors are wood.

I’m very tall. 6 foot 4, so I don’t usually use scaffolding, don’t own any. However I do own lots of ladders, a 22’ extension ladder and a few different A frames and then one of those new hybrid ladders that “do it all”

The floors are wood, well, laminate. They have a texture, hand scraped

The area is quite small where the ceiling gets to its full height as at the one end of the room (tallest end” there is a loft, so I don’t need a ladder I can stand on the loft floor.

It’s just the other two walls that contain the peak and go from 10 foot to 17 foot.

If I do use my ladder, on this hand scraped wood, what should I do to ensure the ladder doesn’t move on me? I’ve never used an extension ladder on such uneven and slippery floors...

Also, there is a Sheetrock ledge halfway up the wall that stick out 2 foot or so for decorative items, like a shelf, tha all along one of the two peak walls, I figure this will make it difficult to even use scaffold as it won’t be able to go up close enough to the wall and I’d be leaning way out to cut in ceiling. not something I want to try.

So, in a nutshell.

- what do you use when working alone on wood floors and an extension ladder to ensure the ladder feet don’t slip out from under you?

Thanks again for all the help y’all have given me over the last year plus since I struck out on my own, you are all a valuable tool that I couldn’t have done this without and I am glad that now I have some experience to be able to contribute more than I used to when I just lurked around sucking up all your knowledge!! Haha
 
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#7 ·
I will also add I’ve seen guys use Ramboard without securing it down - not something I would care to do. And I did try gluing it down once but it was pretty difficult and messy to get up afterwards. Taping has worked much better.
 
#10 ·
I put my rubber feet directly on the floor, and move my drops around it. I almost had a very bad time with an extension leaned on a beam in the middle of a ceiling like that. The ladder slid just a little bit, and that ladder almost went under the beam. That would have been bad.

DO you guys ever get super ladder paranoia after close calls like that too?

I wonder if theres a rubber footed wheel chock kind of thing that could be jammed under the first rung safely...
 
#14 ·
Ramboard, secured as usual, is the absolute best way. But, a good 4' wide floor paper will do the trick very well too. Just secure it with 1.5" blue tape, clean floor of dust first. A 4'×500' roll of floor paper is $24 at Miller Paint.

There's two options, 3rd option is Butyl drop clothes. They grip pretty darn good, use tape to hold for insurance. I just bought 10 butyl drops on sale at Miller Paint, great prices.
 
#17 ·
Most importantly, make sure your ladder is at the right angle. 1 to 4 rule. 1 ft. out for every 4 ft. up. Scientifically it shouldn't slide if it's on the right angle anyhow. I climb up 20 ft ladders right on hardwood all the time with no problems. .I do like the the non slip matt idea though..
 
#18 ·
If you are referring to the laws of physics, this assumes no outside forces (such as the weight of and movement of the painter on the ladder) acting upon the ladder. Add an outside force and a slip is possible regardless of ladder angle.

If you never had a ladder slip on a hardwood floor without providing any slip mitigation measures you are either very lucky or haven't been doing it long enough.
 
#21 ·
In all seriousness, I never work alone on ladders and have a buddy system requirement for all ladder and electrical work on all my jobs.

Often use one tough drop cloth, they're made of surgical cloth and have a waterproof grippy layer underneath.

If I need to protect a floor from drops I will bring in thin sheets of MDF but those will slide on the floor unless you duct tape them down I will also use Ram Board which is taped down
 
#26 ·
uhhh... okay...

Guess I’m missing what is PC about any part of this thread. A guy not experienced with working on hardwood floors wants ideas on protecting them and being safe. Helping out by sharing our experience with this type of thing is pretty much what PT is about. And although most here are professional painters (ie. we earn money by painting) it’s safe to say there are many levels of expertise represented. If we all had all the answers, there wouldn’t be much need for the forum in the first place.
 
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