Forum menu
I'm with the 'get someone else to do it' brigade.
Having read all the above tales of woe it does make me feel a bit like I'd just be paying some random to take a fall on my behalf though 🙁
Had to do some very quick work on my chimney recently. Climbing gear on, out onto roof through Velux, belayed by my Mrs. Climb up the (steep, metal, very high) roof using quickdraws on the snow-stoppers to "lead climb" up and across to the chimney, while dragging tools and some pre-mixed mortar.
Really don't recommend it, but got the job done and it was mostly "safe".
Thanks for all your responses, I do agree with the safety aspect even though I've got a good head for heights............but paying £500 to get to my chimney to carry out 30 mins top remedial work doesnt sit well with me, neither does a fall from said chimney!!
40mpg......the photo you posted of cradle on the ridge...any idea what it is called? I'm expecting that its cheaper to buy one of those than get a scaffolding platform up there. Or is that what it is, just a cradle made from scaff assembled on site?
I've been up a DIY type scaffold tower before. They're ok and if it was me in your situation I'd probably get one of these. And I'd use eyebolts, plural, to stabilise it. The towers are simply too wobbly when freestanding.
They cost about as much as hiring the full monty for a week, so your choice. Easily punted on fleabay when you're done, too.
Towers do not cost that much to hire. I'm currently paying 20 week for a 5 m tower. If erected properly against a wall with outriggers fitted they are perfectly stable and safe. As I said before it would be double width tower with crawler straight up off it. If you want to go belt and braces go for fixed line harness fitted to an inertia reel attached to the tower. That will stop you going down the non tower side of the roof. Obviously the other way your coming down the crawler and back towards the tower.
I'll once again make the point tho. I'm happy and confident to do this but others aren't. I would also take into account pitch, roof material and weather conditions.
[url= http://www.abilityint.co.uk/Aluminum_Scaffolding_For_working_on_a_Chimey.html ]CARS - Chimney Access Ridge Stand[/url] - no idea how available they are though.
Note this will only allow you access to the ridge side of teh stack. If on a gable, you will also need a tower to access teh gable side, and both will leave you totally exposed on the slope sides. And access via ladder is always last resort.
If you need access all round (very likely) I would strongly recommend full scaffold. This would give you the best working platform, so the quality of your work will be improved and time exposed on roof reduced alongside safety aspects. A professional pricing this would consider these, and the scaffold would always* be best value option.
*subject to access constraints
but paying £500 to get to my chimney to carry out 30 mins top remedial work doesnt sit well with me,
Except it's not "30 mins work" is it? By the time you've got a tower and built it; got a roofing ladder and got it up there on the roof in the right place (without trashing the slates); bought your cement and mixed it up; got the cement, your tools, you up there and in position; discovered you've left your trowel on the deck and gone back and got it; done the work (the easy bit); put your kit away, taken the roof ladder down, taken the tower down, returned all the kit you've hired, yada yada, it could well be a day or more plus the cost of the kit hire, couldn't it? All of a sudden £500 to just "have it happen" doesn't seem too bad...
A colleague's off work at the moment because her Dad's just broken his back. Anyone care to hazard a guess how he did it?
[i]About 30 years ago, a chap at our place had to do some work on the roof round the back of his house. He tied a safety rope around his waist and to the towbar of his car, parked at the front.
What could possibly go wrong? . . . .
His wife popped out to the shops
[/i]
I want to know how this story ended please!
[i]
I want to know how this story ended please! [/i]
it's probably on Snopes 😉
Did she need to drive to the shops?
Currently waiting for a quote from HSS for chimney scaffolding, looks a lot likt the CARS sysytem above by 40mpg.
Not gable end chimney so fingers crossed it'll do the job.
Thanks again for advice
[quote=mattbee ]Heard enough stories of chimney stacks disintegrating when used as anchors to never want to rig off one unless I knew it was absolutely bomber.
Which is what would worry me. Don't tend to rely on a single anchor point when building a belay.
I've been up a ladder to sort out the TV antenna attached to the chimney, but in that case the ladder has been tied on through a window (and the base anchored) and I've been attached to both the top of the ladder and the chimney. That's on a completely solid chimney which doesn't need any work doing to it - no way would I be working on the chimney like that.
I like stevomcd's solution, but don't have any "bolts" on my roof. Though I suppose with a gable end you could insert some!
Time for a bit of Fred...
I throw a rope over the roof ridge and tie it down (I have used a tow bar but took both sets of keys up with me). I then use a Petzl shunt to get up the other side and belay to the chimney in addition. I've got a scaffolding tower but can't get it near the chimney.
Edit: 5:10 shoes and only on a dry day.
Crumbs! Reading this thread I'm surprised I haven't died at least a hundred times over in the past few years 😉
Sorry, I've been busy.
stealthcat - Member
Did she need to drive to the shops?
In one. Pulled him over the ridge, landed where the car had been parked.
He was off work about 18 months.
Time for a bit of Fred...
😯 I mean, even by the standards of the time that must have been loopy...
konabunny - Member
Time for a bit of Fred...I mean, even by the standards of the time that must have been loopy...
Agreed, he should've left the family at home and spun the job out for a fortnight. 😉
lol!
I've spent enough time at heights in my life to know that doing it properly is the best thing to do. I took a 15' fall from a roof space when I was 19, caught myself on the handrail of the stairs luckily and walked away with shock. 2' to the right and it would have been 25' to a concrete end.
This sort of response is really why people end up injured
The whole cost of hiring in traders was simply insulting. More than just pricey.
They have a legal obligation to do things in a safe way, that involves more gear and more time, thankfully killing people at work to get things done cheaply is now generally considered socially unacceptable.
The big issue DIY people face is that they don't do this sort of thing very often, you don't see the risks or the issues so don't really plan or mitigate for them. Simple things like dropping something on the roof and then finding it in the head of the person who stepped out the front door. Sorry to sound like "Health and Safety gone mad" but it's something that needs sorting out.
Kona - we were still laddering chimneys like that about 15 years ago. - Even 200 - 300 foot ones. There is no other way of getting up (helicopter excluded). We were using aluminium ladders but it was still all very traditional.
blimey
I tend to choose the jobs i do myself, after doing a little personal risk assessment..
its just money at the end of the day...
compared to life.
my cousins husband is 29 and currently fighting for his life... he didnt ask for it or do anything stupid to get there...
makes you wonder about risks.
Just get a Chinese worker to do it for you, these are both 30 storey buildings....
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7475/15943805082_69aaaf4301_o.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7475/15943805082_69aaaf4301_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/qhUaM5 ]Health & Safety in China[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/75003318@N00/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7525/15943804912_78b50f1305_o.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7525/15943804912_78b50f1305_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/qhUaJ9 ]Health & Safety in China[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/75003318@N00/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr
>2 storeys and the end result is much the same...
On [url= http://smwcrt.org/j32/index.php/1980s ]29/10/83[/url] I fell down a 35ft pot in OFD cave landing head first on rocks in the stream bed. When I came round I self rescued; free climbing back out of the pot unassisted to rejoin the group and making my own way back to the surface. I was back at work in two weeks.
Results are quite variable and people have suffered much worse falling only 3ft. Falling hurts, be careful.
Have you considered the possibility that you are in a coma and this is all in your head and in real life your missus is now married to your brother?
have you seen vanilla sky?
Whilst the H&S army would no doubt have issues, I think don't think the guys in the second picture are putting themselves at massive risk, providing the mast is securely fixed. - They would have to be trying quite hard to fall off.
problem is marcus - you have no idea if that mast is securely fitted until your in free fall.
To be fair, you could get a good idea of how secure it is by looking at it and giving it a good 'wobble'
all is not what it seems at first - is it weight rated for him ?
i remember a similar cavalier attitude when climbing trees as a kid.
worked fine for me - my lighter mate came up behind me and the branch snapped for him.
got a bit of tree through his lower lip for his trouble.
I think don't think the guys in the second picture are putting themselves at massive risk, providing the mast is securely fixed.
This is China, so it could just be held on with blue-tak....
On a more serious note, the guy who installed the mast won't have had any safety gear. Normally just an old length of hemp rope and a mate holding him, bit like these guys 9 storeys up:
[url= https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3105/2701083303_b148148912_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3105/2701083303_b148148912_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/57FKXM ]No harnesses![/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/75003318@N00/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr