PPE Inspections have begun!
US Safety’s technicians have been quietly inspection PPE: fall protection equipment specifically used in the telecommunications industry for the last couple years. In 2025, we have begun advertising our services and actively seeking to book new clients that want or need their body belts, pole straps, lanyards, & fall protection harnesses inspected. We have several staff members certified “competent man” by OSHA standards to economically and efficiently inspect your technicians PPE. Please call or email to setup a discovery call to see if we can help you with your ladder or PPE inspections. 847-460-2087 or chad@ladderrepairs.com
2023 Ladder Inspection & Maintenance Season Has Begun!
US Safety’s 2023 Ladder Safety & Inspection season has begun! Whenever I
tell someone what I do as a company, there is always a bit of disbelief,
“you fix what?” I have a prepared explanation of what I do. Often
people have one of two responses, “that is really cool” or “that
isn’t a real job” after five years the responses never disappoint.
If you look carefully at the ladder pictures you can see it is bent, enough
that the ladder will be difficult to extend and retract. Part of what I do is
maintenance: replace the rope, worn feet, bad rungs, bad rung locks, &
random hardware. The bigger part of what we do is find cracks that may cause
failure in the future or make adjustments (unbend) to ladders that make them
safer, easier, & more efficient to use for the technician.
This bent ladder would still get used, but the potential for an injured
shoulder extending the ladder is increased significantly. Ladder maintenance is
about more than finding BAD ladders or fixing BAD ladders. Ladder maintenance
is about supplying technicians with the highest performing tool to help keep
them safe and efficient on the job. You don’t send your technician in the field
with a drill with a bad battery, don’t send your technician to the field with
an underperforming ladder.
The ladder pictured below obliviously sustained some type of fall recently leaving it curved. Using a series of adjustments to the ladder we were able to get the ladder straight and back in service in 15 minutes. If you have ladders that don’t function well, give us a call!
Call us today to schedule your annual ladder maintenance visit! 847-460-2087
or email chad@ladderrepairs.com
#laddersafety
#ussafety
#ladder#safetyfirst
Why should I inspect my ladder?
In today’s episode of “Why should I inspect my ladder?” we find an excellent example of a quality lightweight ladder manufactured by Little Giant ladder that most likely was blown off a house while fully extended and was left a little bent. The ladder is still perfectly safe to use, but more than likely the technician is dissatisfied with the amount of effort to lift and lower the ladder since it is mildly bent to the right. Our teams are trained how to safely assess the level of deflection and carefully bring the ladder back to factory specifications and at the same time make the ladder more user friendly during the lifting and lowering procedure. Our goal at US Safety is to make sure that your ladder fleet it safe and efficient. Our clients first priority is safety and part of making a ladder safe is removing any barriers that might make the ladder more difficult to use. When we inspect a ladder we are looking for damage that according to the manufactures guidelines would deem the ladder defective, but also repairable damage. the repairable damage could be bad rungs, damaged rung locks, broken cable hooks, worn out feet, damaged extension ropes, missing end caps, worn rivets, or rusted hardware. Sometimes physical damage plays a much less important role in an extension ladder being usable. This situation is an excellent example of a ladder that desperately needed maintenance and without proper training the technician would wonder every day why his ladder is so difficult to use. If your ladder fleet doesn’t have a daily inspection program in place for your technicians and an annual inspection by a trained ladder maintenance and inspection company call us today to start the conversation. Ask for Chad 847-460-2087 or email me directly at chad@ladderrepairs.com #laddersafety #ladderinspections #UsSafety
Before & After Ladder Coatings
Recently US Safety Inc was performing ladder inspections, maintenance, & coatings for a large client in the Chicago area. The client’s main concern besides being compliant with OSHA’s annual ladder inspection requirement was to deal with complaints from technicians regarding “fiber bloom”. US Safety has been coating ladders for many years, but it seems that recently coatings have been one of our most common requests for services. I wanted to take the time to show you some of the before and after photos of our ladder coatings.
Every ladder company has different requirements for the type of coating and the preparation procedure, but in this blog post we are going to concentrate on the basic procedure of before, during, & after without getting in to the specific details. The before pictures show how the ladder looks almost like it has a fur coat on due to the fiberglass coating breaking down due to UV damage. The after sanding photos show how the labor intensive process of scrubbing the ladder can remove the itchy fibers, but not the future issues causing the irritation for the technician. Finally, the combination of side by side photos and closeup after photos will definitively show you the stark differences between a coated and coated ladder. The difference is not limited to just rough versus smooth in the appearance of the fiberglass, but the rejuvenation of the color in the ladder as well. It is not uncommon for technicians to think that they are receiving a new ladder when they come to pickup coated ladders.
If you have an aging ladder fleet, or you just want to protect your ladder fleet from future fiber bloom call us today! 847-460-2087 We would love to start a conversation with you today.
