| Author |
Message |
    
Fred Hinze
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 01:34 pm: | 
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I have a house with a low sloping slate roof at the top of the first floor level. Two second story windows look out over the slate porch roof. The house is a two story brick colonial. The only way to reach, and paint, the roofline eaves is to put a ladder on the porch's roof.
What could be done to protect both the slate roof and the painter (who knows little about slate roofs I found out) in order to paint eaves over the porch area.
Are there wide rubber pads to put under the ladder legs to distribute the weight? Could a board with ropes be safely hooked from a window sill with the ladder set on the board to distribute the weight and not break slates? If either of these solutions might work, where could one get such rubber pads or, alternately, hooks that could go over the window sill in such a way as not to damage the sill?
Thanks for any help, Fred |
admin
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2004 - 07:07 pm: |
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We use two roof jacks and put two planks down (one on the jacks and one on the roof) and then set the ladder feet in that wooden cradle. Page 126, bottom left, Slate Roof Bible, 2nd edition. Add one plank (laid flat on the roof) to the illustration showing the plank on roof jacks.
Joe |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Friday, April 09, 2004 - 08:52 pm: |
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I had this exact problem with my house. It would have been difficult to use roof jacks since
the porch roof has hips and valleys that would get in the way.
I finally worked out the solution of building a steel tube-and-clamp scaffold on the porch roof.
I measured the porch roof slopes (which vary from one section to the next) and hired a welder to
make base plates at the proper angles to support the scaffold. Then, depending on how you built
the scaffold, you can either stand on the scaffold to reach the eaves, or build a level platform
to put a ladder on.
This was a fairly elaborate project, but once all the pieces were in place, it worked very well.
Of course, you have to nail the base plates through the porch slates, and yes, I did break a
few slates while moving around. I didn't mind since my porch roof is in mediocre shape and
is going to need a fair amount of work anyway.
Regards,
David Zimmerli |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Sunday, April 11, 2004 - 08:45 am: |
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Go rent a small reach all bucket or platform lift,they are quite reasonable these days and will save you time,money and are safer than most homeowners equipment. |
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