Does someone need to foot my ladder?

Everyone knows a ladder should be footed and almost nobody knows that it is the least effective of the three methods. It became the default because it needs no equipment, not because it works well — and it puts a person underneath the ladder, which is where dropped tools land.

Safety

Step by step

1. Try to tie it first.Look for anything solid at the top — a scaffold tie, a bracket, a strong section of frame, a ring bolt you can fit. Both stiles, tied separately, with the ladder already at the correct pitch. Tying takes a couple of minutes and it removes almost every failure mode.
2. Get the pitch right before securing anything.One out for four up. A ladder at the wrong pitch is the reason it wants to slide in the first place, and no amount of holding fixes a ladder that is too shallow.
3. Secure the base if the top cannot be tied.A stability device, a ladder mat, or stakes driven either side of the feet on soft ground. The base sliding out is the most common single failure and it is the easiest to prevent mechanically.
4. Use a stand-off if the top has nothing solid to rest on.Gutters, downpipes, glass, cladding and lightweight fascia are not places to rest a ladder. A stand-off bridges over them and rests on the wall, which also holds the ladder away so you can work at the gutter line.
5. Foot it properly if that is all you have.The person faces the ladder, puts one foot on the bottom rung, and holds a stile in each hand. Facing away, standing to one side, or holding with one hand does very little. They stay there the whole time the ladder is occupied.
6. Recognise what footing does not do.It does not stop the ladder sliding sideways at the top, it does not stop it twisting, and a light person cannot resist much of a heavy ladder's momentum once it starts moving. Do not treat a footed ladder as a secured one.
7. Protect the person footing it.They are directly under the work. Anything dropped lands on them, so they need eye protection at minimum and should not be there at all if you are removing or dropping material.
8. Reconsider whether a ladder is right at all.If the job is long enough that footing is impractical, or needs both hands, or involves handling material, that is the signal for a tower or a platform rather than a better way of holding a ladder.

Tips

• A short length of rope permanently tied round the top rungs, ready to be looped over an anchor, removes most of the excuse for not tying.
• For repeated work at one place — a gutter, a boiler flue, a satellite dish — fitting a permanent ladder anchor to the wall is cheap and turns a fiddly setup into a two-minute one.
• Rubber ladder mats work well on smooth hard surfaces such as patios and driveways, which is exactly where feet slide most.
• If you are working alone and cannot secure the ladder at all, the honest conclusion is usually that the job should wait for help or for different equipment.

Common mistakes

• Treating footing as equivalent to tying — It prevents one failure mode out of several, and it depends on a person continuing to pay attention for as long as you are up there.
• Having someone hold the ladder while standing to one side — It provides almost no resistance in either direction and gives false confidence to the person climbing.
• Letting the person footing it wander off — A footed ladder is only secured while it is being footed. People get bored, get called away, or go to fetch something.
• Resting the ladder on a plastic gutter — It deforms, then slips, and the top of the ladder moves sideways. Use a stand-off, which also gives you room to work at the gutter.

Alternatives

• Tying the top: The correct answer wherever it is achievable. Both stiles tied to a solid anchor point — a fixed bracket, a scaffold tube, a ring bolt, a firm section of frame. It prevents sliding sideways, sliding out at the base, and the ladder being pushed away from the wall, which is everything.
• Securing the base: A proprietary ladder anchor, a stake, a wedge fixed to the ground, or a ladder mat with a high-friction base. It prevents the feet sliding out, which is the most common failure. It does not prevent sideways slip at the top.
• A stability or stand-off device: A bar or a frame fitted to the ladder that widens the base or spreads the contact at the top. Widening the base substantially reduces sideways instability, and a stand-off holds the top off the wall so the ladder is not resting on gutters or glass.
• Footing by another person: The weakest option and the one to use when nothing else is available. Effective mainly against the base sliding forwards, of limited use against sideways movement, and it exposes the person doing it to falling tools. Better than nothing on a short job.

Questions people ask