How to Inspect and Maintain Your Ladder | Safety, Hazards, Training, Oregon OSHA — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:03Jeff: When I'm inspecting a ladder, what am I looking for?
2. 0:11I have a 75-page technical data sheet book that will tell you everything you're looking
3. 0:17for.
4. 0:18But, on a job site when you're doing it, the very first thing is it's got to have tags.
5. 0:24It's got to have all the tags and they've got to be legible.
6. 0:26Ken: You can't change anything about that ladder, that the manufacturer originally put
7. 0:33on that ladder, built it to that standard, and tested it.
8. 0:39So, it's a real risk.
9. 0:42But we do require the employer to know what that ladder is designed to do, what its maximum
10. 0:48weights are, so everything that is on a label, the employer is supposed to know that.
11. 0:54Bryon: Inspection, we always recommend that you follow the manufacturer's recommendations
12. 0:59for inspections.
13. 1:00You always want to start at the base of the ladder and work your way up.
14. 1:04Make sure that the feet are in good condition, any pads, everything is operating properly.
15. 1:13Look at the side rails, make sure that they're still tight.
16. 1:15Look at each and every single rung or step, make sure that there's no dents, no damage,
17. 1:23no punctures, excessive splinters, fraying, or loose materials.
18. 1:33Make sure the spreader bars, if they're equipped, that the spreader bar is still engaged properly.
19. 1:41Just give the portable ladder an overall, top-to-bottom, visual inspection; physically
20. 1:48feeling each component, making sure that it still meets the original manufacturer's specifications.
21. 1:56Trever: Regarding our ladders and inspections, the crews have been trained to inspect if
22. 2:03it's dented, if it's bent, if something's just not right, obviously not to use it; red
23. 2:09tag it, let their supervisor know.
24. 2:11And then our safety director will go out and inspect it and determined that hey we can't
25. 2:16repair it, then we'll cut them up throw them away, recycle them actually is what we normally
26. 2:20do, and just to make sure that they're not being used.
27. 2:24And then also when the safety director is going out doing jobsite audits every week,
28. 2:29every day, he's going to be looking at those ladders when he's there too.
29. 2:32So, if he sees something that the crew may have missed, that's kind of our second line
30. 2:36of defense to ensure that they're using safe ladders.
31. 2:39Clark: But as far as maintenance goes to a ladder, if that ladders broken, cracked, bent,
32. 2:47faded, in the garbage it goes.
33. 2:49Jeff: You can't do it.
34. 2:50Once the ladder is broken, it's broken.
35. 2:53It's done.
36. 2:54You're not going to fix the fiberglass.
37. 2:56If you lose, you know these rivets are put in a special way, you're not going to re-rivet
38. 3:00it with, a you know an AA rivet, there's no way.
39. 3:04So, the idea about it is once it can't pass inspection, what do you do with it?
40. 3:09You destroy it.
41. 3:12See, you don't send it home with an employee that needs a ladder at home, because if it
42. 3:19won't pass inspection on the jobsite, is it now going to pass inspection at your house?
43. 3:25And then it fails and then he comes back to you and says you gave me a bad ladder.
44. 3:30So ya, destroy it, just destroy it.