(David) wrote in message . com...
Thanks for the tips Stuart.

Second reason for the second ladder is that I also need a roofing
ladder at the moment; my plan was therefore to obtain one of those
gizmos you attach to a regular ladder, (eg http://tinyurl.com/nete)to
convert it. Two birds with one stone, if you will. Does anybody have
experience of using one of these attachments, are they safe and OK to
use? I know a proper roofing ladder would be a better bet, but it
will only be for very occasional use.

Didn't get any replies about the roofing hook, so I went ahead anyway
and bought the above-described device from Screwfix, and thought it
might benefit others if I posted my experience!

First thing is that if anybody HAD responded, they'd probably have
pointed out that roofing hook attachments don't work well with a
conventional extending ladder; they work best with a single length of
ladder. Reason is two-fold.

Firstly, imagine an extended ladder lying flat - well, it doesn't, as
there's a 'step' in the middle between the two ladder lengths, which
prevents the load being distributed evenly on the tiles. Therefore
the lower length needs to have wooden battens wired to it to bring it
up to the same line as the upper ladder (does that make sense?)

Secondly, and more significantly, the stays on a normal extended
ladder are designed to resist load applied in a downward direction,
obviously. So it's easy enough to push the ladder up the roof on its
wheels, and then flip it over so the hook engages with the ridge. But
then what happens? If you're unlucky, the lower ladder then drops off
the bottom of the upper one under the influence of gravity. If you're
even unluckier, it waits till you're standing on it before gravity
takes effect! Either way, the upper ladder is then marooned half way
up the roof. (And no, I didn't get caught out by either pitfall.)
The solution, which I had to work out for myself - no mention of any
of these issues in the instructions (even to the effect of 'Not to be
used with extending ladders', which I would have expected) - was to
engage the lower ladder above, rather than below, the stay on the
upper ladder, so that it resists force applied in an upward direction
instead of downward. But of course the hooks on the stays now don't
engage over the rungs; therefore they have to be wired together
extremely securely, with plenty of thick gauge wire, so the whole
assembly stays put. Not ideal, and although I'm personally 100%
confident in the security of what I have set up, there is potentially
plenty of scope for causing oneself serious injury.

Having said all that, the roofing hook attachment itself is really
good and secure; fixed to a single ladder length I can't see it being
any worse than a proper roofing ladder.

Hope this helps somebody else in a similar position!

David