Help me choose a ladder?

May 16, 2017 7:31 AM

I feel silly for asking this question, but I am terrible at estimating distances and spatial stuff like that. This is my house. I want to wash the windows above the garage. Can anyone look at the picture and tell me how tall of a ladder I need? Everything is average sized and I am 5' 7".

Bonus question: is it likely that I can go to my local hardware place and just buy said ladder and fit it into my Honda Civic and take it home, or would I have to beg a favor from a pickup truck owning friend? (I am also terrible at estimating whether stuff can fit in my car).

I need a ladder for various things (painting indoor rooms, getting on the roof from the one-storey side of the house) but this is definitely the tallest task I need it for. So I will also accept the answer "buy a smaller ladder and use this trick to wash the windows."

Thank you!

posted by cpatterson to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

It looks like about 15 feet or so, but you could open the window and run a tape measure down to find out. Likewise, you could fold down your seats, etc, and measure inside your car. Do you have a roof rack on your Civic? If not, you may be looking at delivery or one of those expensive Little Giant super-foldy ladders.

You might just buy a pole and wash with that. The poles will be somewhere around the paint department; you can get fixed or telescoping. Plus, then you will have a 10-foot pole you can use to not touch things with.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:44 AM on May 16, 2017 [8 favorites]

You want a 20-foot aluminum extension ladder with stand-off arms/a stabilizer bought separately. (Ladder roughly $120, stabilizer $45 or so at HD.)

Just checking the obvious, you're fit and able to climb that high to wash those windows? You could use a squeegee with an extension handle and reach out from the open window and do it. Probably not quite as beautifully, but you'd be a lot safer. People fall off ladders a lot. Or yeah, telescoping pole.

Your indoor ladder for painting etc. will be a standard stepladder.

You can access the roof from the one-story side with the extension ladder unextended. (Do not use the stepladder for this.)

Extension ladder = pickup truck or delivery.
posted by nohattip at 8:01 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I would get an aluminum telescopic ladder with a wide base, Ultex is a good brand. Telescoping is better than extendable because they adjust better for height and are much lighter and easier to store. They can last a lifetime if you read the manual and do an inspection once per year. A pole may also be good if you can get one that runs through a hose but has interchangeable mop and squeegee heads. If you use ladder it is a 2-person job.
posted by parmanparman at 8:01 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Use a pole, or use a hose. Does the top of the window open? If it does you can reach most of the window from the inside to clean it. The kind of ladder you would need to get up there would be like a 16ft or 20ft extension ladder, but it's not the same kind of ladder you need to paint your ceilings or change a lightbulb inside.
posted by mareli at 8:07 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Agreed/seconded a 20' extension ladder (with the braces as nohattip notes). If your honda has a roof rack, you might be able to tie it down to that, maybe..

For indoor painting etc, get the 8' step ladder, not the 6'. If you've got any high parts of your ceiling, you'll want those extra 2 feet.
posted by k5.user at 8:19 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

yep, buy the smaller ladder for indoor stuff and get an extension pole to wash the windows. You'd buy a squeegee that has a spot to screw in the pole. The poles are a universal fit so you'd pick one of those up, probably in the paint section and be all set. (You'll be able to use the pole for paint rollers too when you're ready to paint inside.)

As for indoor stuff, I have one like this and it's great. It's light and easy to slip into a closet or someplace for storage. I like the big top step and have used it many times for painting a room. It easily fits in my 4-door Civic if I put the seat down.
posted by dawkins_7 at 8:25 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yep, invest in a nice 8 foot step ladder for indoor and single-story roof access, and some sort of telescoping pole with a squeegee head for those high windows. Falling off ladders is no fun, as many of us could tell you.
posted by scrubjay at 8:26 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

You'll need a pretty damn tall ladder for that. There is a ladder called the "little giant" that folds into 4 sections, and can be used similarly to an extension ladder, stepladder, or scaffold, and which you'd be able to fit in your car. They're not cheap.

Also, just to check this off the list, have you made sure you don't have tilt-in windows that you can clean from the inside?
posted by adamrice at 10:20 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I once bought a ladder from Industrial Ladder & Supply. They deliver (by a guy in a pickup truck-might take a few weeks). I think any on-line ladder company would need to deliver.
posted by H21 at 10:35 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Go to Home Depot and get a container bottle of "window wash" and connect it to a water hose. The container has a valve for washing and then for rinsing. It does an adequate job. Easy and fast. And no ladder is needed. But you may have to remove any window screens which just might require a ladder.
posted by JayRwv at 11:09 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Twinsies! I brought home a telescoping convertible ladder (the Werner version of the Little Giant) in my Honda Civic! I somehow wedged it into the front passenger side with the seat fully reclined (I cannot guarantee this will work for you).

I have been very pleased with this ladder which has met many of my homeowner needs. I can use it for accessing the roof (on the one-story side) to clean gutters, putting up Christmas lights, and, yes, probably cleaning second-story windows if I wanted to do that. The ladder is easy to carry for one person, not too heavy, and I like how it flares out at the top and bottom and seems more stable than a standard ladder. Plus it fit in my car, which is always a plus.

A three-step stepstool definitely is a better bet for painting rooms, especially if you have one with a big wide top step that feels like a little platform so you can shift your weight around without feeling like it will topple. Mine is definitely the go-to for indoor work, but I can't use it to access the roof so it's not really a substitute. If you can, get both.
posted by aabbbiee at 11:26 AM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for all the ladder advice everyone. I think I'm going to buy a stepladder for the other jobs and investigate washing the windows either with a squeegee on a pole or from the inside. They don't tilt, but I can open the top and bottom all the way if I take off the safety catches.

I appreciate the answers and the fact that no one made fun of my new home owner naivety!
posted by cpatterson at 11:41 AM on May 16, 2017

I once bought a 16' paint roller extender. I imagine there is a set of things that screw into a tool such as this, like a scrubber washer, followed up by a squeegee. Here
posted by Oyéah at 5:58 PM on May 16, 2017 [1 favorite]

I recommend a ladder like this for anything around the house. It fits into a Camry and is relatively light. I have one for work and one for the house. Everyone is impressed when I break it out.
posted by dozo at 5:29 AM on May 21, 2017 [1 favorite]