Loft Ladder Optimum Angle

Ladder angle: As you can imagine we at Lofty Ladders visit quite a few homes and see an awful lot of ladders. One issue we come across regularly is the angle at which a ladder is set. Your loft ladder is not a set of stairs (even though some people refer to them as such) and there fore can not be used in this manor and definitely not angled as such. Ladders, including loft ladders, should all follow a simple rule when it comes to angle. For every 4 units up they go they move away from there anchor point 1 unit. So, if your ceiling is 8 feet high the bottom of your ladder should be 2 feet away from the wall to which it is anchored. In short it should  look a bit like image 1.

If your loft ladder or the ladder you are using to clean out your gutters looks like this it’s set up correctly so give yourself a pat on the back for being good at physics without even realising!

Conversely, if your loft ladder or the ladder you are getting  the cat of the shed roof with is set up at an angle similar to image 2.

You aren’t doing it right. A ladder with a shallow angle like this will fail very quickly. It’s simply not designed to take the stress and strain of your weight at these angles. This kind of angle leads to shorter life, risk of snapping or cracking, if the ladder has flat steps they’ll be at an unsafe angle. It might feel comfortable to climb at this angle but really it’s actually pretty dangerous.

Give us a call and we can get you a ladder installed at the correct angle that will last for the lifetime of your house.