A recent case reported by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has highlighted the very real dangers of improper ladder use.

Back in December 2023, a labourer in the West Midlands suffered serious injuries after falling from a ladder that had been placed across a stairwell opening. Following an HSE investigation, the Staffordshire-based construction firm that appointed the worker has been fined £16,000 (plus £4,000 in costs). On top of this, the company's director – who was working nearby when the incident occurred – has been fined £2,000 (plus £1,386 in costs).

A recent news report highlights the danger of using cheap, poorly-made telescopic ladders.

Photo credit: Mark Hunter (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

According to this Metro article, an electrician suffered broken ribs after falling around 15 feet onto a concrete floor when his telescopic ladder reportedly snapped in half. The ladder had been purchased online via Amazon.

Incidents like this are a serious reminder that when you're working at height, the quality of your ladder really matters.

Using a ladder to work on a roof can be incredibly dangerous without the right equipment. In fact, around 48,000 Brits take a trip to A&E every year as a result of a ladder accident in and around the home. Worse still, the number of ladder-related fatalities also makes for seriously grim reading.

So, whether you’re repairing tiles or cleaning gutters, a roof ladder is an essential tool for safety and stability and knowing how to use one correctly can significantly reduce the risk of potentially life altering accidents.

If you’ve got a DIY task to get done and only a short space of time, it’s understandable that you may not want to deal with the hassle of bringing out a ladder, especially if the job will only take you 5 minutes! Luckily, for many short DIY tasks, you can use a hop-up step instead of a full ladder to get that little bit of extra reach. But how do you know when a hop-up is suitable for your task and when you should get a ladder out? This blog will explain!

If you use a step ladder at home for your general DIY or cleaning jobs, you may not think you need to take any precautions before you climb – after all, you’re only a couple of feet off the ground, so that surely isn’t considered ‘working at height’ right? Wrong! It is the risk of injury, not the height itself that defines ‘working at height’. Let’s dig into this a little further…