Metallic’s stackable ladders have been a window cleaners’ best friend for decades. They are light, affordable, compact for ideal storage purposes, versatile and most importantly, they are extremely durable and will provide you with many years of rugged use in the field. This particular blog is to help provide safe ways to stack the ladders for those of you that are not as familiar with Metallic’s stackable ladders. It can look as if it takes a lot of strength to stack the ladders, but I can assure you from personal experience that it mostly consists of balance and repetition. When you’ve mastered the mechanics of it, it’s a skill that sticks with you for a lifetime. Let’s start by breaking down what steps you can take to sure up your ladder stacking ability.

First, position yourself near a solid building structure. Whether you’re cleaning a home or a commercial building, it’s best practice to give yourself plenty of space so as not to endanger anyone or property when first learning the mechanics of stacking the ladders. It’s recommended to use a solid surface such as a brick wall, or, if you are at a residence, you could use the eave/gutter. Any one of these solid surfaces will help guide the ladders during the stacking process as well as provide you with a solid base to assist in reducing the risk of the ladders sections accidentally falling or coming apart.

You will want to position the base section (section with the safety swivel feet or rubber plugs with a wider base on the lower half) closest to your body with the remaining sections positioned further away from yourself. For example: If you are stacking 3 sections you will need a base, center and top section. The center section will be straight from top to bottom and will also have the yolks/forks on both the top and bottom portions of the ladder. The top section will taper near the top while the bottom portion will have the yolks/forks.

With the base section now positioned closest to your body, center section in the middle and the top piece positioned furthest from you, let’s discuss how you can stabilize that base section with what I like to call the foot/toe hook. This will help give you control of the movement of that bottom piece while keeping your hands free to stack the remaining sections. Position your foot on the bottom rung of the base section trying to hook your toe around the inner siderail of the ladder giving you more handsfree control of that base piece.

Since three sections are likely the most common combination of ladders you will use, we will continue to go through the step-by-step process of this particular ladder combination.

And now that you have become a little more comfortable with the foot/toe hook technique on your base section, you are now ready to use your hands and start stacking the remaining sections piece by piece.

You can now grab your top piece by placing a hand on each of the siderails while using a solid building surface such as an eaves trough or brick wall to rest the top portion of the top section on, while remaining clear of any possible property damage as mentioned before. You can now start to lift that top piece upward little by little until you are able to safely place that top piece onto the center section yolks. Once the top piece is secure on the center section you will want to use the locking pins that are attached to each section to properly lock in each section to eliminate the ladders from coming apart while assembled. You can do this by simply inserting the pins that are located on each siderail through the predrilled holes on the yolks to secure each ladder in place.

Keeping in mind that there will be slightly more weight because you now have 2 sections connected, otherwise you can carefully stack your top 2 sections to the base piece by repeating the previous step. Congratulations, you now have stacked 3 sections which will reach the majority of your 2nd story windows.

To unstack your ladders, you simply need to reverse the steps you performed while stacking the ladders. Just don’t forget to pull out the safety pins as you unstack.

Before you know it, you will soon be able to stack all sorts of ladder combinations on your own without the assistance of a solid structure.

Working with ladders comes with great responsibility. Most ladder injuries are typically due to user error and or inadequate inspections on the ladders themselves. Make sure all your technicians are properly trained with all forms of ladders. It’s highly recommended that a responsible team member keeps a log of all ladder inspections at least once a month (preferred would be either weekly or bi-weekly) to ensure that all the ladder equipment meets the proper structural integrity protocols for fieldwork. Safety should always be top priority. To help, we’ve included a link to OSHA’s 1910 ladder safety protocols and guidelines.

Here at Detroit Sponge we always take great pride in helping our professional window cleaning contractors. We offer free shipping to all orders over $149 with the industry’s fastest shipping abilities. Whether you’re calling to place an order over the phone, or you have questions about any one of the commercial grade products we offer, or you’re considering starting up your own window cleaning business, I can assure you that any one of our knowledgeable team members are happy to assist anyway we can. Please feel free to chat it up with us at 1-800-535-6394. Or, if you prefer, updated inventory, pricing and the mass variety of equipment we have to offer can be found at detroitsponge.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

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