Notts 2 fixed ladder

[Steve Clark]

On a trip to Notts 2 yesterday, we noticed that one of the fixed ladders is deteriorating quite badly. After the main shafts, there’s a tighter bit, then a bit of a rift to climb over and down with hanging ladder. It’s the ladder after this, about 6ft long, concreted in at the base and loose at the top with rope tied to it. The top rung is bent and ready to fail. The whole ladder wobbles at lot more than it did before too.

If I can find something suitable, I’d be happy to replace it and bolt it to the wall at the top but thought I’d ask here first in case there is a preference as to how it’s done? An offcut of scaffold ladder beam / railway ladder like illusion or something that will last for years would probably be good. Or dare I suggest staples?

 

[andrewmcleod]

I am a big fan of staples, but only when they are bombproof because if a staple fails, you are likely going to fall down the hole. At least with a ladder you can make a reasonable assessment of how crappy it is.

So nice stainless (not critical) steps (i.e. expensive), ideally attached with resin (bolt-on versions are available), in good natural rock would of course be great. But possibly loose steps in breezeblocks that slowly disintegrate and fail, not so much.
I'm sure it's possible to hammer in rebar steps in such a way that they will never come out (I think putting a kink in by hitting sideways half-way through the hammering process may help?), but this is outside of my experience (which is extremely limited anyway!).

 

[Andy Walsh]

On a trip to Notts 2 yesterday, we noticed that one of the fixed ladders is deteriorating quite badly. After the main shafts, there’s a tighter bit, then a bit of a rift to climb over and down with hanging ladder. It’s the ladder after this, about 6ft long, concreted in at the base and loose at the top with rope tied to it. The top rung is bent and ready to fail. The whole ladder wobbles at lot more than it did before too.

If I can find something suitable, I’d be happy to replace it and bolt it to the wall at the top but thought I’d ask here first in case there is a preference as to how it’s done? An offcut of scaffold ladder beam / railway ladder like illusion or something that will last for years would probably be good. Or dare I suggest staples?

G.o for it ,I say that ladder went in +25 tears ago and was not strong ladder--very light weight , before the ladder it was a awkward climb --now over a deep drop unfortunately it was the last ladder put in .Better Alloy ladders easy to get .
The original ladders where mainly my builders ladder that was used in work in safety in the shaft then not much later it was stuck in the hole due to Foot + mouth closing the UK !!!----I had to get a new one!!!

 

[Loki]

10 or 12 mm stainless staples ought to be perfectly fine. They are ok on via Ferrata. The failure mechanism would be brittle fracture caused by cyclic loading (bending) over many cycles so keeping the staples as short as possible minimises this risk. Again I don’t see this as likely.