Is It Okay To Lean Ladder Against Gutters

Gutters aren t meant to hold the weight of a person just the weight of the water that enters them.

Is it okay to lean ladder against gutters. In reviewing innovative ladder safety products author and construction pro chip macdonald had this to say about preventing damage to rain gutters eavestroughs in roofing contractor magazine let me try and recall how many gutters i have crushed repaired and then crushed again while setting up and or climbing ladders to the roof in the past 40 years. You should have no problem leaning the ladder against them. Don t try to climb a ladder or clean your gutters from the roof during wet icy or windy conditions. What you should do instead is to position the ladder against the wall.

Often the gutters pop out of the brackets but they are easy enough to pop back in. In over 10 years iv only ever broken a gutter once by leaning a ladder against it and that was just by being careless and rushing because the job was taking longer then i d hoped. Leaning the ladder against the gutters may do great damage to the gutter because of pressure created by the combined weight of you and the ladder. You said the gutters are in decent shape so i m supposing they aren t rusted through or in bad condition.

When working on the roof or climbing a ladder it is a good idea to wear non slip shoes like sneakers or work boots. Make sure you have the ladder is placed in such a way that it provides proper working height to reach the gutters. Because the ladder may slide when you climb up or the worst the ladder may damage creating misbalance leading to falling. Use wire string or bungy cord to secure the crate to the ladder around the middle of the rung itself.

The crate will sit directly on the roof keeping the ladder off the gutter preventing contact therefore preventing crushing or bending the gutter. The wind can be so strong as to blow a ladder right off the side of a building. If you have a choice set up the ladder where there s an adjoining wall chimney or other structure to hold it in place. Most of the weight force of.

Place it on the ground open side down. Also the is you lean the ladder against the gutter is not safe. Slowly raise the ladder with crate attached to the roof just above the gutter. Never try to lean out over the gutters.

A gutter ladder protector had prevented all that. Also if you regularly set the ladder against the same location on your metal gutters add extra gutter straps to strengthen the gutter in the area where the ladder top rests. If careful then it s generally fine to lean ladders against gutters. It protects the gutter either by keeping the ladder off the gutters.