Gidday there Bob!,
We use Aluminium ladders both in the Fire Service and for Electrical work.
Although there is a trend towards Fibreglass in the Utility companies here,
before Fibreglass we used wooden extension ladders for climbing poles and so forth, but they don't last too well after being stored on the trucks and our predominantly damp air here and the problems with splinters from them, thankfully rules their use out!.
We saw our damaged ladders up too, repairs are only done on minor damage (like popped rivets) anything worse, the ladder is trashed.
Wooden ladders are never repaired where the strings or rungs are damaged.
Hey, thanks for the great (if not very worrying [Linked Image]) pics, Bob, I'm not scared of hieghts at all, but I can feel my knees getting weak just looking at them photo's!. [Linked Image]
BTW, Bob, is that lower extension ladder actually sitting on the roof?. [Linked Image]
Wouldn't a cherry-picker be safer?.
{Message edited to add last questions [Linked Image]}

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 11-29-2003).]