Re: Walking on a pitched roof
- From: Jeff Wisnia <jwisnia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:40:50 -0500
aemeijers wrote:
"Steve" <Steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:Steve-FBF945.20233525032007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On my street, I see roofing guys walking on these very pitched roofs,
almost seems like nothing to them. I try and I'm sliding. I can't do
it. I have a 2 story house, with a 1 story attached garage, and the
gutters are in a spot where the 1 story meets the 2nd story, and I would
like to get up and clean them.
I can't do it, I feel like I have no traction.
This might seem like a stupid question, but is it mental? I don't think
I'm afraid, as I do make the trip up there and try.
It is the shoes/boots?
Both. Practice, no fear of heights, and the correct soft-sole shoes. I cringe when I see roofers working in hardsole lugged boots- hell on the shingles. I prefer soft-sole clean tennis shoes, and walk as gently as I can. I don't walk near as close to the edge as I used to- my body is trying to tell me something with that queasy feeling in pit of stomach when I stand right at a dropoff now. Guess the inner ears are going.
I've heard it isn't just the inner ear which deteriorates and affects balance. A physical therapist told me a while back that it's also the feedback from the muscles/nerves around your feet and ankles which do not supply "tilting" signals as well as they did when they were younger.
I guess that guy was right when he told me that once your body reaches a certain age everything either breaks down, dries up or leaks. <G>
****************8
This thread is as about as serendipitous as it could be for me. When I arrived home from work last Friday I noticed that a few feet of one end of the ridge vent on our two story colonial home was flapping in the breeze. I don't have any problems being up two stories on an extension ladder, painting something, but like the OP, walking on pitched roofs freaks me out. And, at the tender age of 71 I'm definitely noticing that decreasing balance ability thing crreeping up on me.
I was envisoning having to call a roofer and pay whatever it took to buy 15 minutes on the job to tack the ridge vent back down again, 'cause for one thing around here the worker's compensation premiums for employees who do that for a living are a bit over 100% of their wages.
This time I got lucky and found a local (fearless) handyman advertising in the town paper who was happy to do the job for me for about the cost of a good meal. He insisted on shooting in galvanized screws (with washers no less) to replace the original roofing nails which had pulled out, and then went the entire length of the ridge, ending up putting in more screws than an x-rated movie, just to "make sure" it wouldn't happen again.
****************
BTW, here's a tip for you ladder users. If you take a few seconds to spray paint the lowest rung on all your ladders with an easily visible paint, like day-glo orange, you'll greatly lessen the chance of stepping off the second rung by mistake and messing up your ankle, an open can of paint, or both.
Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
.
- References:
- Walking on a pitched roof
- From: Steve
- Re: Walking on a pitched roof
- From: aemeijers
- Walking on a pitched roof
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