I was wondering if you guys have multipliers for high ceilings. I am bidding large residential shop with 16' ceilings and I am trying to figure how much time to add for all the extra steps up and down the ladder. I was thinking somewhere in the 10-15% range.
Any thoughts?

There are time and motion units for ladder tasks, but they don't include your employees mood for the day, or job conditions, your best figures come from job actuals records, it may pay to look at scaffold or lift, there may be a savings, compared to moving ladders, and attempting to carry equipment, and material up a ladder.

LK is right on the money. Also factor this, on day #1 I work pretty fast off a 12 foot step ladder. On day #2 I start out slightly slower and by the end of the day am begining to feel it. On day #3 marked difference in speed. All this is negated however if the job runs 2 weeks or more in which case I get acclimated to the weight of moving that ladder around and it all becomes normal again. Make the job last 6 months or more and I can work that ladder like its a 4 footer.

Anything over an 8' ladder ?? We bring in the sissor lift .. but that is commerical work. I know the owner of our company charges big bucks for extra high work.

Speaking of which... I've got some 20' ceilings and no clue how to safely work up there. How do you guys usually handle rooms that tall, 16' stepladder? What do the drywall people do? I was thinking about just biting the bullet and building staging out of 2x and plywood. This is just a cathedral ceiling in a residence, so no boom truck.

[This message has been edited by SteveFehr (edited 08-18-2006).]

You could look into renting a one man genie lift for that. It can be transported in the bed of a pickup truck.

If you are going to use a 16' step ladder, plan on having a 2nd person with you. I have one and I hate using it. It weighs alot and is like trying to move around a telephone pole.

If the residential shop has a concrete floor the scissors lift is a great way to go. Add the rental & some non-productive time to the bid & have fun. I timed myself on a commercial job with identical tasks & the lift cut my time in half. It was a lot easier day with the lift also.

BobbyHo has it with the ladder. A 16' stepladder has a huge footprint. The legs may be 10' apart and it might weigh an awkward 200lbs. It's much more common to use scaffold, which you'll need a second guy to assemble.

Dave

I second the scaffold. around here there are alot of high end homes with 20' ceilings that are multi level. You can't get a lift in and a scaffold works better than the tall ladders/ Rod

Just out of curiousity, doesn't the general have scaffolding on site for the subtrades?

Usually, the GCs here will have scaffolding on site, and if it is a concern, we usually put it into the contract that the GC is to supply or we charge for additional cost of rental....

Just my thoughts.

We use "Baker Scaffolding". It is a 30" wide scaffolding that is about 7' long. It fits great in foyers and it only takes one man to erect it. Best of all we are able to charge a small rental fee. It makes for a safe and professional installation.

Rick,

How high can you safely go with that scaffolding if there's nothing to tie onto?

Dave

We use it mainly to reach the ceiling of a two story foyer or family room. We normally use two 6' sections or one 6' and one 4' section plus the wheels and we can udo that without outriggers. We have not had to go any higher, at least to my knowledge. I also have railings if necessary because of the platform height.

As coincidence would have it, I discovered we have a genie lift at work for changing light bulbs and such on the high ceilings- I don't get involved much in the routine maintanance and simply never knew it was there. But, we had a roof leak and one of the mechanics hauled it out to pop open cieling tiles and troubleshoot. Thankfully I was the one holding the drawings and wearing the tie and not wearing the harness- that base is awfully narrow for as high as the bucket goes; it must have been swaying 6" with just the exertion of popping off the drop ceiling tiles! Granted, this ceiling was about 10' higher than you'd ever see in a residence, but still, scaffolding is sounding nicer and nicer...