If you've decided to re-decorate your house during lockdown - bravo! Now is a great time to give your home a new lick of paint and make the place look fresh and clean.

Anyone whos ever painted a room before knows that it's fiddly, time-consuming and can be messy. What can you do to make the process easier? Well, you should start by making sure you have the best equipment. Let's be honest, the ceiling is without a doubt the trickiest place to paint in any room, so we're going to set you up with the best ladder for the job.

What to look for?

When you're looking for the perfect ladder for painting the ceiling, you want to avoid ladders that will require you to over-reach. You never want to stand on the top three rungs, so if you're finding yourself over-extending then your ladder is too short. 

Your ladder needs to be certified for your weight plus the weight of your equipment, so if you're going to be carrying a few tins of paint, brushes, rollers, trays and a cup of tea then you need to take this into account.

Let's take a closer look at the best three ladders for painting the ceiling, platform step ladders and multi purpose ladders.

Platform Step ladders

Up there as one of the best ladders fr painting the ceiling is the humble platform step ladder. These ladders are ideal for painting ceilings because they come in a wide range of heights and they feature a useful platform at the top. 

When you use a platform ladder to paint your ceiling, you'll be elevated comfortably, you'll be able to reach the ceiling easily and you'll be able to pick up and put down your painting equipment as required.

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Multi purpose ladders

Whether you need to paint a huge ceiling or the ceiling over a staircase, our multi purpose ladders are a great option. As far as ladders go, they are the most versatile option and will allow you to paint comfortably almost anywhere! 

Some of our multipurpose ladders, like the 5-way multi purpose ladder shown above, come with an optional platform for extra workspace. We highly recommend purchasing one of these multipurpose ladders if you're a painter and decorator by trade. It will help you to paint ceilings in every setting and will allow you to stay elevated for longer periods of time than a regular step ladder.

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So, there you have it the best kinds of ladders for painting the ceiling! If you have any other questions, feel free to drop us an email or give us a call on 01446 789538.

If you want to access your attic more easily, installing a loft ladder is a great way to achieve this. A permanent loft ladder saves you the hassle of fetching and setting up a conventional ladder every time you want to go up there - and most loft ladders can be neatly folded away when you're done.

Before you purchase a loft ladder, though, we recommend taking a moment to familiarise yourself with the different types of loft ladder that are available. Here's a quick guide from Ladders UK Direct...

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When working at height, it's absolutely vital that you have proper precautions in place to help prevent a slip or fall. Unfortunately, a lot of accidental deaths in the workplace are directly linked to working at height, so it's important to do what you can to prevent injury. We've put together this blog to show you how to work at height safely.

For more information you can check out the HSE Working at Height Resource, which we used to put together this blog!

What Is Working at Height?

If you are doing any task at a height where the fall could cause you harm, such as painting or reparing a roof, then you are working at height. Precautions have to be taken to prevent some of the dangers of working at hieght. 

Working Safely at Height - First Steps

Before you even think about touching a ladder, you need to make sure that the work has been planned properly, will be supervised properly and is being carried out by someone with the correct training/experience and knowledge of working safely at height. You also need to check that you've got the right safety equipment. If you are working at height as part of a company, then your employer should have taken neccessary safety steps, but you should check that all practical measures have been taken before you begin your work. If you are working independantly, like on a DIY project, then you will need to take these steps yourself.

If the task is particularly dangerous or high up, you should consider whether a professional would be better suited to the job. 

Assessing the risks When Working Safely at Height

We're experts on step ladder risk assessments - but risk assessments are cruicial for working safely at height no matter what type of ladder. Think about how long the task will take, how many times you'll need to do it, and the type of surface you'll be working on. Working safely at height is largely down to how well you understand and manage potential risks. For example, if you think that there's any chance of a slip or fall, make sure you explore fall arrest equipment before making a start. Even if you have completed this task many times before, check every time. 

Prepare to Work Safely at Height

Preparing to work safely at height is incredibly important. Just because you have a ladder doesn't mean you are ready to climb it. Make sure that you are not alone when you start your project, so that somebody is available to help should the worst happen. Similarly, as with all instances where there is an opportunity for injury, make sure you have a way to phone for medical help in case you get hurt.

Most importantly, consider your own abilities carefully before you work at height. We all want to beleive that we could build a house with our own two hands if we had the chance...but unfortunately, that's not always the case. Working safely at height is difficult, so if you do not have the experience and skills to work safely, then you might want to avoid this particular project. 

If you are going to undertake this project, make sure proper precautions are in place. These will vary depending on the height of your project, but you might require a harness or guardrails to work safely at height. Properly research what equipment might be neccessary.

Working safely at height - what you should and shouldn't do:

You should:

• Get as much work done from the ground as you can
• Make sure extra precautions are taken if you're working near a fragile/breakable surface
• Ensure that you're wearing protective headgear in case of falling objects
• Consider what would happen in the event of an emergency & make sure everyone around is aware of this
• Ensure the climbing space is clear & free of debris

You shouldn't:

• Lean over or overreach while using ladders or scaffolding
• Overload ladders - make sure you check the maximum working weight before you start!
• Use ladders for tasks that require you to work at height for longer than 30 minutes at a time
• Use a ladder or work at height if you aren't qualified or able to do so

Ladders for Working Safely at Height

Here at Ladders UK Direct, we offer a huge selection of ladders for domestic and trade use that will allow you to work at height safely. We work with well-known suppliers to bring you some of the safest & most-loved ladders on the market. Use the buttons below to shop our ladders & scaffold towers.

Ladders >     Step Ladders >     Scaffold Towers >

If you have any questions about working safely at height, you can contact the Ladders UK Direct team here - sales@laddersukdirect.co.uk.

When purchasing a ladder, it's helpful to know what length you need. But what about width? Should you be taking that into consideration too?

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If you want to work safely on a ladder, it's important to purchase one that's the right length for the task at hand. While you may think you can look at a particular wall and have a sensible guess at the ladder height you need, you're never going to be 100% accurate. If you want to calculate the right ladder length, follow these steps.

Extension Ladder Length

In order to be used safely, extension ladders need to be leant up against a hard surface with a suitable pitch. If you're working on a platform like a roof, you need to make sure your ladder extends a few feet past the workspace. When calculating the right extension ladder length, it's important to take these extra few feet into account.

Here's an example to show you how to calculate the right ladder height for a 20ft wall.

To work safely, your extension ladder needs to be pitched at a ratio of 4:1. So for every 4 feet up, you need to move the ladder 1 foot out. This is known as the '1 in 4' rule.

So, if you want to work on a 20ft wall, the ladder needs to be moved 5ft out. Propping a ladder against a wall creates a right-angled triangle, with the ladder as the hypotenuse (longest side), so it's time to think back to maths class: to calculate the length of the hypotenuse, we'll need to use Pythagoras's theorem.

In case you haven't brushed up on your trigonometry lately, Pythagoras's theorem states that the length of the hypotenuse squared = the triangle's height squared + the triangle's width squared. Let's apply this to the example above...

• 20 squared is 400
• 5 squared is 25
• 400 + 25 = 425
• The square root of 425 (to two decimal places) is 20.62

This means that your ladder needs to be 20.62 feet long (minimum) to allow for the ladder to be propped up against the wall at a safe angle.

Then, you need to add a few feet so that the extension ladder can extend past the working ledge. So, if you want to climb a 20ft wall, you need a ladder that's approximately 24ft long!

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Step Ladder Length

Calculating the right step ladder length is a little easier because you don't need to take pitch into account. Just bear in mind:

• The step ladder will need to get you within roughly 4ft of the area you're working on
• You must not stand on the top three treads of a swingback step ladder (see Step Ladder Do's and Don'ts)

Let's use a 10ft wall for our example - if you want to work on a gutter that's 10ft off the ground, you'll need a step ladder whose platform or topmost safe tread is 6ft off the ground. This allows for the 4ft working space we mentioned before.

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Still not 100% sure how to calculate the ladder length you need? Contact the Ladders UK Direct team for expert advice.