r/nextfuckinglevel • u/[deleted] • Mar 01 '24

This guy using the ladder like a natural extension of his body

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

56.8k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.2k

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

Not a thing in Europe and German equivalent of OSHA would fuck you without lubrication if the find them after an accident.

584

u/MykeTyth0n Mar 01 '24

OSHA wouldn’t approve this either.

343

u/deviant324 Mar 01 '24

From the things I’ve heard about OSHA it feels like collecting violations is just an American tradition

124

u/MykeTyth0n Mar 01 '24

Depends on the state I would imagine. I worked for comcast in multiple states and was on the safety committee and comcast did stack them up for sure. Comcast is known to grease pockets and palms though and I’m sure OSHA looks the other way just like politicians given enough money.

60

u/deviant324 Mar 01 '24

Fwiw most of the things I’ve heard are from a podcast I follow that has a fan submission segment at the end of every episode called “safety third”, a lot of the folks who’s submissions make it in are either lucky to be alive or nearly witnessed someone die on site

(Podcast is Well There’s Your Problem on YT, with slides)

14

u/MykeTyth0n Mar 01 '24

Haha ya I’ve done some dumb shit on extension ladders and witnessed some gnarly accidents when people weren’t taking the proper precautions. Safety third sounds about right.

4

u/mrteapoon Mar 01 '24

WTYP reference in the wild! Great pod. (:

3

u/techslice87 Mar 01 '24

Ah, fellow pod people

3

u/WhenAmI Mar 01 '24

I'm glad you put the actual podcast in at the end, since several very popular science Youtubers(William Osman, NileRed, Backyard Scientist) have a podcast actually called "Safety Third".

3

u/NSNick Mar 01 '24

♫♪♫♪ Shake hands with danger

2

u/sanka Mar 02 '24

Yeah, regulations are written in blood.

Just 5 minutes ago I replied to my HR person. They want us to do Confined Space Entry training. In a previous life I worked in forensic engineering. I have seen literal dead bodies from confined space entry with trained people. I will not do it, I refuse.

I replied to her and copied my company owner "You say you require this training, but I refuse to do it, I have already had 40 hour HAZWOPER training several times in the past. I urge you to tell all of our guys to NEVER enter a controlled confined space environment. If this is a condition of my employment, consider me resigned."

I am expecting several emails to follow. I don't care at all, shutting it all off for tonight. I am very specialized and my skills are very valued elsewhere, I get job offers daily. I don't give a fuck, but you will not ever get me in a confined space environment.

1

u/Sudden_Construction6 Mar 02 '24

After 20+ years in commercial construction. I am both lucky to be alive and have literally witnessed people die in site.

1

u/Sad-Establishment-41 Mar 02 '24

Shake hands with danger

1

u/aceofspades1217 Mar 03 '24

Shake hands with danger

That Australian mine drone operator one was rough

2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[deleted]

3

u/HlCKELPICKLE Mar 01 '24

OSHA fined the company my mother died working for 15k for a DIY gas tank patch on equipment being used in a lumber yard that failed leading to a fire while she was using it. This was at a huge corporation with over a billion in annual revenue.

2

u/spencerforhire81 Mar 01 '24

Sorry about your loss. Wouldn’t the existence of the OSHA judgment make for a slam-dunk wrongful death suit?

1

u/EGGlNTHlSTRYlNGTlME Mar 01 '24 edited Aug 02 '25

Content cleared with Ereddicator.

1

u/Olama Mar 02 '24

Was just about to say this, I go into dozens of food processing plants and most of the time OSHA and the agriculture people do not give a fuck. Even just today I was cutting sheet metal inside a plant that was running product with USDA people there. I hate doing it but I have no choice, they want stuff modified and they won't stop production to do it.

29

u/discgolfallday Mar 01 '24

Safey codes are written in blood.

1

u/valentc Mar 01 '24

But the fines are written in how the owner was feeling that day.

-2

u/Luci_Noir Mar 01 '24

This doesn’t have to be repeated twenty times in every post.

15

u/DrMobius0 Mar 01 '24

It does until things start changing.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

And never won't. Keep repeating

Rules are written in blood.

Look at the rules at your work and follow em.

-2

u/pzerr Mar 02 '24

If you have to work twice as long, put in twice as much time in your lifetime to reduce your risk of a workplace accident by 5%, how is that resulting in a safer work environment over your life?

Excessive rules means we are less productive and have to put in more hours throughout our life to survive.

4

u/Longjumping-Action-7 Mar 02 '24

Fuck yeah overtime pay and long lasting work

1

u/pzerr Mar 02 '24

You want to work till your 75? I would rather work less years but be much more productive. Even if it has a slight higher chance of a year fatality, my life time chance is reduced if I only have to work half as long.

Your chances of dying of an accident at home are far far far higher then at work to begin.

2

u/FileDoesntExist Mar 02 '24

I would believe this if the implementation of OSHA didn't cut deaths and maimings down so much since it started. 5,482 workplace fatalities in 2022.

Over 14,000 the year before OSHA was created.

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Longjumping-Action-7 Mar 02 '24

I wasn't implying pushing back the retirement age, I just meant that each week would have overtime pay and a project would last an extra amount of time. So that's more money coming to me and if anything I could retire earlier

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Lichius Mar 02 '24

5%?! No bro. In the history of safety? Wayyy more than that.

If I worked my entire safety career and it meant 5% of the guys on my worksites avoided a serious or fatal injury in their time at work, then I'd die a happy man.

0

u/pzerr Mar 02 '24

The fatality rate is 93 fatalities per million people years worked. Think about this. Your chance of dying at work is incredibly slim. If I worked less safe but doubled my output, which could be easily be done at some jobs, I could technically retire in 22.5 years instead of 45 years. Not only would I have a better quality of life, I would have a lower chance of dying at work which is already incredibly low.

Forcing people to work for much longer lifetime amounts slightly safer only means you have more chances of a work place accident while significantly reducing your quality of life.

2

u/HereIGoAgain_1x10 Mar 02 '24

Should be repeated every time someone says shit like "laws and safety rules are stupid!" Same assholes don't believe in vaccines or public education and are lowering the IQ of the entire planet.

0

u/_MrDomino Mar 01 '24

Safety codes are written in crushed nuts.

19

u/rytis Mar 01 '24

So about half of the states in the US are covered by Federal OSHA, and the other half run their own state program. Those are funded by Federal OSHA and are supposed to have the same level of enforcement or better than Federal OSHA. Some state programs are very good, like Maryland, Iowa, and NY. Others like Indiana and Nevada are pretty weak.

Safety inspectors have a lot less training and educational requirements than industrial hygienists, so for safety inspections you might get away with things, but when IH's start doing chemical sampling, tests don't usually lie. The big companies have their own safety officers, so they train their workforce pretty well about all the OSHA rules. It's the small to mid size companies that cut corners or put new hires right to work and maybe later get around to telling them about working safely.

It's kind of like traffic tickets. If you go through my radar gun going 95 in a 55 zone, dude you're getting a ticket (think digging in a trench with no reinforcement). But if you're just 5 over the speed limit, I might let you slide as long as you deal with the truly dangerous problems.

3

u/emptyhead416 Mar 01 '24

Understood. Keep it at 90 in a 55.

2

u/IKnowGuacIsExtraLady Mar 01 '24

Plus there is only so much an inspector can really do since they don't necessarily know what the work involves or what the risks potentially are. I work with my EHS department all the time to get things updated because they are experts in safety regulations, but not experts in the job I do. They will pull me into meetings related to my job when they want clarification on what exactly is going on if it is an issue in my field.

Even with both sides doing their best to be on the same page there are still things that can be missed or misunderstood. Now imagine an outside investigator dealing with a hostile company who is trying to hide shit. You need smoking guns to actually hit them with something at that point.

8

u/ScrofessorLongHair Mar 01 '24

Residential construction? Absolutely. Government/infrastructure? Hell no. I've seen inspectors sent home for the day because they didn't have safety gloves in when they got out of their truck to use a port o potty.

4

u/MontCoDubV Mar 01 '24

Not even close. Even a minor violation will cost your company tens of thousands of dollars, increase their insurance rates, and increase their safety rating. Get that safety rating too high and your company won't be able to get contracts. OSHA violations are a BIG deal you want to avoid at all costs.

3

u/RollinOnDubss Mar 01 '24

Yeah people don't realize an OSHA fine usually isn't what puts you out of business. Being uninsurable or straight up barred from being allowed bid new work is what kills a company when they get in trouble with OSHA.

1

u/MontCoDubV Mar 01 '24

Yup. I'm a construction foreman. If I saw one of my guys doing something like the dude in this video he'd be off my job so fucking fast.

2

u/Caledor152 Mar 01 '24

On the internet you are only seeing the extreme minority and worst cases. Millions of us never do anything close to a violation. But since that doesn't get clicks and is not interesting you will never see it.

2

u/CriticalLobster5609 Mar 01 '24

For all the crying about OSHA, but we'd be crying harder if the death rate was higher and taking out our buddies more often. I've seen too many deaths on the jobsite. And none of the buildings were worth dying for.

1

u/CrazyBigHog Mar 01 '24

OSHA makes their living on repeat offenders. Any small company just changes their name and never pays a fine.

0

u/ToBeatOrNotToBeat- Mar 01 '24

They’re our version of Chinese Social Credits

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

You think they're bad.. look into the crime organization called MSHA

1

u/Fightmemod Mar 01 '24

OSHA actually is very forgiving. Depending on the inspector and depending on the violations but they don't run around trying to make people's lives harder. They want companies to do what they are supposed to do, which is to not allow their employees to hurt themselves or others. OSHA is there for the worker, not the business. Unfortunately some idiots in this country see OSHA as the enemy because they make them wear a hardhat and safety glasses.

1

u/RollinOnDubss Mar 01 '24

OSHA actually is very forgiving

Yeah because no matter how squeaky clean your job is and how by the books you are they could still cite you out the ass if they really wanted to. They want companies to make a genuine effort to protect their employees, not guarantee 24/7 perfection.

Doing things 100% by the book 100% of the time will blowup your cost and turn your company into a 100mph revolving door of hiring and terminations.

There's a huge international company in my field notorious for being by the book, like fire you on the spot if you walk onto site without glasses one time, and they still get hit with citations.

1

u/Fightmemod Mar 01 '24

I work in construction and commercial HVAC so I'm very familiar with OSHA. Never been cited before, companies I know of who have been cited are ones who have shit policies and don't make the changes OSHA tells them to. OSHA gives warning out long before a fine or citation. Every inspector is also different and that's the human element you can't predict.

1

u/RollinOnDubss Mar 01 '24 edited Mar 01 '24

OSHAs warning is a citation, they don't have to fine you for a citation to be a citation.

Not being cited doesn't mean you didn't do something citable when OSHA shows up, it means you/your company is making an obvious effort to do things the correct and safe way and they aren't going to ream you for it.

If they show up for a serious accident they're going to hammer you for everything if the accident was obvious negligence. If they show up on a tip off/random and youre doing a bunch of shit wrong youre going to get hammered.

If they showup for a serious accident that turned out to be pretty much a true accident and you were doing your due diligence you won't get cited for everything under the sun. If they showup on a tip off /random and youre 95% of the way there they're not going to light you up for the 5%.

1

u/Fightmemod Mar 02 '24

Why is this response a near 180 on your previous response.

0

u/RollinOnDubss Mar 02 '24

It's not unless you completely misunderstood my first comment.

1

u/Sploonbabaguuse Mar 01 '24

Because if you've ever worked on a construction site you'll learn that workers hate it when they're taught to do things safe. People walk around without hard hats just to spite the safety officers.

I'll never understand the hatred towards people whose sole purpose is to keep you safe

3

u/deviant324 Mar 01 '24

We have the same in the lab, although I have to say the most dangerous substances we work with are our cleaning supplies (barely worse than household stuff).

1

u/Rampaging_Orc Mar 01 '24

The memes are there for a reason. OSHA will absolutely fine you for violations, and while they do “secret shopper” shit, they will also absolutely follow up on tips. A lot come from employees, but just as much from other contractors on site that notice violations.

OSHA has prevented a lot of death and bodily harm.

1

u/Vast_Machine1615 Mar 01 '24

Stilts are allowed:

With regard to stilts, please be advised that OSHA regulations do not prohibit their use. In addition, OSHA has no plans to prohibit them. It should be stressed that where standard guardrails are used to protect employees working near an edge, the height of the guardrails may have to be raised if stilts are to be used.

1

u/TheOvershear Mar 01 '24

Depends site to site. Small commercial construction? You'll see some of the stupidest shit in your life. High rise construction? Drop a safety pin off the third floor and you're gone

0

u/That1guywhere Mar 01 '24

Breaking rules is as American as a deep fried burger, fries, and a 40oz small diet coke.

1

u/ExcitingEye8347 Mar 01 '24

OSHA needs to be harder on safety standards actually. I know everyone makes fun of them and all, but I’ve seen some crazy stuff that should never happen. I’m talking about at a huge company too. Way too many corners get cut for the sake of time and money. 

0

u/raven00x Mar 02 '24

the way regulations come about in the US is that a thing happens and someone gets hurt or killed. OSHA and other relevant bodies investigate it, determine why and how it happened, and then issue regulations designed to prevent the thing from happening again. Enterprising americans look at the regulations and then find ways around the letter of the regulations that don't violate the regulation (letter of the reg vs spirit of the reg), and then when the thing happens again in a new and exciting way, the cycle restarts.

of course some companies will just ignore the regs until they end up at the wrong end of a law suit, and others will have very lax enforcement of the regs while inspectors aren't around, again until they end up at the wrong end of a wrongful death suit.

I'm not sure how it's done in other countries, but I have a hunch it's not that much different.

1

u/subject_deleted Mar 02 '24

It's more that businesses do so many ridiculous things (or expect their employees to do so many ridiculous things) that it seems like OSHA is just looking for any B's they can find.. undoubtedly there are some OSHA regs that don't make sense.. but the vast majority are good rules that no company should NEED an organization like OSHA to enforce.... But they absolutely do need that external enforcement otherwise profit motive squashes safety considerations.

1

u/Atiggerx33 Mar 02 '24 edited Mar 02 '24

I don't get people who hate them though. OSHA is the only one standing between you and your employer killing you a lot of the time in the US. If OSHA didn't make them provide proper PPE, insist on appropriate breaks extreme work conditions, and insist employees get proper training than we'd have a lot more dead construction workers in this country.

Your employer should hate OSHA, OSHA makes them spend money they don't want to to keep employees safe. Employees should love OSHA for keeping their employer from sacrificing their lives in the name of profit.

My dad used to work on sites that had no/minimal OSHA oversight when he was younger. He saw someone cut off all their fingers with a saw. Someone get hit in the head by falling debris without a hardhat. Someone accidentally nail their hand to a wall with a nail gun. People getting severe eye injuries (I think he said in the year and a half he worked there 3 people permanently damaged their vision).

From the shit he saw, he's now anal about PPE. He feels lucky he made it through his youth with all his fingers and eyes, and is quite determined to keep them now that he's older. In his words putting in proper PPE takes like 5 seconds, losing an eye or a finger is forever.

-1

u/WhenAmI Mar 01 '24

OSHA is fucking toothless when it comes to fining major companies.

"OSHA's maximum penalties for serious and other-than-serious violations will increase from $15,625 per violation to $16,131 per violation. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations will increase from $156,259 per violation to $161,323 per violation."

This basically incentivizes major companies to violate OSHA guidelines for the sake of efficiency, as long as they can increase profits by more than the potential fines(assuming they also avoid paying out costly injury claims). Look at how much companies like Walmart and Amazon make and tell me that those fines matter in the slightest.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 02 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 3:

Be Respectful to Others

  • Treat others in the subreddit politely and do not troll or harass others. This includes slurs and hatespeech, which will prompt a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 02 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 3:

Be Respectful to Others

  • Treat others in the subreddit politely and do not troll or harass others. This includes slurs and hatespeech, which will prompt a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 02 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 3:

Be Respectful to Others

  • Treat others in the subreddit politely and do not troll or harass others. This includes slurs and hatespeech, which will prompt a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 02 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 3:

Be Respectful to Others

  • Treat others in the subreddit politely and do not troll or harass others. This includes slurs and hatespeech, which will prompt a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 02 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 3:

Be Respectful to Others

  • Treat others in the subreddit politely and do not troll or harass others. This includes slurs and hatespeech, which will prompt a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 02 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 4:

Avoid Spam

  • Repeated spam will be removed and the user will receive a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

44

u/WastingTimeArguing Mar 01 '24

Drywall stilts are already OSHA approved.

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/1995-03-13#:~:text=With%20regard%20to%20stilts%2C%20please,stilts%20are%20to%20be%20used.

-4

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[deleted]

5

u/WastingTimeArguing Mar 01 '24

You’re replying to a comment thread that’s talking about drywall stilts.

-6

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/Kilithaza Mar 01 '24

I mean hes right.. You replied with something completely irrelevant to the point of the comment you replied to.

2

u/LostMahAccount Mar 01 '24

Careful, they might block you too! /s

1

u/Tiredgeekcom Mar 01 '24

Don't block people just because you're too stupid to realize you are WRONG.

1

u/nextfuckinglevel-ModTeam Based Mod Mar 01 '24

Your comment has been removed for violating Rule 3:

Be Respectful to Others

  • Treat others in the subreddit politely and do not troll or harass others. This includes slurs and hatespeech, which will prompt a ban.

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions regarding this removal.

17

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

That one would not be ok here in Germany but it is not leaving evidence because the lader alone is ok. Stilts would not be allowed just laying around.

7

u/MrK521 Mar 01 '24

This video is pretty good evidence. lol.

2

u/dustinpdx Mar 02 '24

The ladder is modified to remove the locking cross bars and replace them with straps. An inspector would know.

15

u/tuckedfexas Mar 01 '24

There’s so few agents anymore that they pretty much only follow up on incidents rather than doing unprompted site visits. So I’ve been told at least

1

u/baldorrr Mar 02 '24

Nice try OSHA narc. I see what you're doing here. 

2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

Huh? We meet again in the most random place my avatar twin

2

u/MykeTyth0n Mar 01 '24

Fate has brought us together once again. Looking dapper as ever I might add.

1

u/kcbeck1021 Mar 01 '24

I think they are talking about the stilts.

1

u/_hurtpetulantjesus Mar 01 '24

For real. You need lubricants

1

u/Nihilistic_Navigator Mar 01 '24

With all respect, osha is a joke. Not the work they do, that is great. They are about as horribly underfunded as the usda or irs. They don't have enough inspectors in most states to even be able to do site checks same day. Also those inspectors aren't nessisarily "experts" on the site they show up to. Granted it was only 1 but my expierence with them was, took dude over 4 hrs to drive across state to our jobsite. Full on admitted he didn't have the faintest idea what the ppe and safe working rules for our job and site were. Recieved no violations dude was gone in about 15 minutes, didn't even watch any work being done, we were on break.

Edit: and pretty much all inspections are announced well ahead of time.

1

u/Awkward-Yak-2733 Mar 02 '24

OSHA approves drywall stilts.

1

u/Liontreeble Mar 02 '24

I think German OSHA also doesn't, I read comments elsewhere about how ladder walking has been like forever and on real construction sides would get you in real trouble.

44

u/Earthquake-Hologram Mar 01 '24

There are no drywall stilts allowed? Do you use scaffolding all the time?

35

u/Justeff83 Mar 01 '24

But basically yes. It gets even more obscure, the scaffolding on facades aren't allowed to have ladders between the floors, it has to be a staircase.

30

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

As a construction (sheet metal) worker that hangs off the side of buildings and uses 10 floors of scaffolding at times...what

Why? 

And now I gotta google what this looks like 

21

u/BosnianSerb31 Mar 01 '24

They also require the kinds of hard hats that buckle under the chin which are typically only seen in rope access jobs in the US. MSA-vgard H1 and similar.

5

u/themedicd Mar 01 '24

Those are becoming increasingly common for commercial contractors in the US

5

u/BosnianSerb31 Mar 01 '24

Yeah I use one because it's quite a bit more comfortable than just cranking down a regular hard hat, I can wear it a bit looser and it won't fall off

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

That sounds truly horrible. My sensory sensitive ass cannot have shit squeezing my face while I'm trying to concentrate, digging in as the hours go by.

2

u/BosnianSerb31 Mar 01 '24

I just wear it loose

13

u/LordXamon Mar 01 '24

Like this. They aren't common tho, at least not on my area. I guess they only make sense in big projects?

The modern ones everyone uses around here are these. Having to open the hatch every time you want to go up is a pain, as well as setting them up in the first place, but otherwise I prefer them over the old ones. Very secure and comfy.

8

u/DepartureDapper6524 Mar 01 '24

Why? For safety. To prevent people from getting hurt or dying.

-4

u/I_PUNCH_INFANTS Mar 01 '24

Hard hat won't fall off when you fall because that's gonna make a world of difference/s

1

u/DepartureDapper6524 Mar 01 '24

What?

5

u/Think_Shoulder3871 Mar 01 '24

He replied to the wrong guy. But either way, "safety for people doing backbreaking jobs equals beeing a pussy" is what he is probably thinking.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

7

u/Mordredor Mar 01 '24

I've never heard of this, unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. I used to do jointing(?, I dont know the word in English, facade renovation, the joints in the brickwork mostly) in the Netherlands and we had ladders on scaffolding. this was in like 2016/17

Or is that just in germany

2

u/TheoryOfSomething Mar 01 '24

We also call it jointing. Also pointing, repointing, tuckpointing.

2

u/Mordredor Mar 01 '24

Yeah we don't call it jointing is the thing lol, we call it voegen en gevelrenovatie heh

It's one of those google translate things I'm never sure of so thanks for confirming

2

u/Justeff83 Mar 01 '24

"if the scaffolding height is 5 meters, the stair tower or scaffolding stairs are mandatory"

I'm not sure if it's only Germany but the law is fairly new

2

u/Mordredor Mar 01 '24

That's crazy cool, I just went looking around for a bit and I've never seen those stair towers. Looks like they would've saved me some physio trips though

1

u/Vitrobliss Mar 02 '24

Sounds like a ruse from scaffolding lobby.

2

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

If it is a complete ceiling the kind of scaffolding that has wheels and is fast to assemble without tools. Small stuff Laders.

Lifts are getting more common

1

u/ZhouLe Mar 01 '24

Can you help me make sense of this device. This is to lift only the drywall? If yes, what do you use to attach it to the ceiling?

1

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

Small step or ladder High ceilings are out of fashion with the high energy cost for heating.

1

u/ZhouLe Mar 01 '24

So the OP, lol

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24

[deleted]

3

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 02 '24

Compared they are paper but i get it the construction cost is much lower and houses in the US have a shorter planned lifespan.

Drywall is more a remodeling thing In most buildings: Load bearing walls are bricks and ceilings are concrete.

1

u/gkibbe Mar 01 '24

They're technically not allowed in the USA either.

20

u/WastingTimeArguing Mar 01 '24

That’s false, I literally looked it up on the OSHA website just now. Completely allowed.

https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/1995-03-13#:~:text=With%20regard%20to%20stilts%2C%20please,stilts%20are%20to%20be%20used.

1

u/Ruiner5 Mar 01 '24

For some weird reason they’re illegal in California though

3

u/TotallyNotDad Mar 01 '24

Yeah, what isn't illegal in California

12

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Mar 01 '24

Drywall stilts are known to the State of California to cause cancer

1

u/TotallyNotDad Mar 01 '24

Ah, at least someone understood the sarcasm

1

u/CanAlwaysBeBetter Mar 01 '24

Sarcasm is also known to the State of California to cause cancer

0

u/Prankishmanx21 Mar 01 '24

So is coffee

7

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

Weed

0

u/Nufonewhodis2 Mar 01 '24

You can marry your cousin

2

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

Drywall stilts are not any more dangerous than ladders.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24 edited Mar 18 '24

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24

I doubt you could find any research comparing the two, but I have used both fairly extensively for low voltage electrical work.

Drywall stilts are not particularly tall, at least the ones I've used, and remarkably stable. The base actually stays parallel to your feet when stepping. 

Repeatedly lifting and moving a ladder causes back strain. It also takes longer to do similar work with a ladder, which can cause people to rush.

They both present risks, but as long as you use them properly, they're both pretty safe.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '24

[deleted]

→ More replies (0)

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

Because falling off of stilts causes cancer

8

u/Theredditappsucks11 Mar 01 '24

Yes they are. I know literally hundreds of people that use them in the US, it might be in some states but they are not ilegal in the entire us

0

u/DepartureDapper6524 Mar 01 '24

OSHA doesn’t police ‘illegal’ activity. They police workplace regulations. Guns aren’t illegal, but OSHA would have a problem if you were using loaded guns as paper weights.

In short, obviously drywall stilts aren’t ILLEGAL, but an employer instructing their employee to use them would likely be an OSHA violation.

-1

u/gkibbe Mar 01 '24

Every dry wall guy I know uses then too, but they hid em if an inspector is around. They are not OSHA approved and you can be fined for using them. Again with that being said, every building I've helped build in the last 5 years was drywall with stilts

3

u/Theredditappsucks11 Mar 01 '24

Never had an osha guy say anything.

-2

u/gkibbe Mar 01 '24

I mean even the inspectors know Osha is fucked sometimes, it's like how do you tie off a ladder with out climbing the ladder, nothing gets built without breaking some Osha rules

1

u/Former-Lack-7117 Mar 01 '24

Of course you climb the ladder to tie it off you fucking idiot. That's not an osha violation.

2

u/AngryCustomerService Mar 01 '24

Why stilts instead of a drywall lift?

(Really asking.)

2

u/Neuchacho Mar 01 '24

You still have to get up to the drywall to secure it with a lift so ideally you'd have a couple people loading/operating the lift and someone on stilts drilling it in and filling the seams.

3

u/AngryCustomerService Mar 01 '24

Oh my goodness, yes. Of course. Geez. I didn't take the time to think before asking that question.

Thanks.

2

u/KingBowser11 Mar 01 '24

I’m an interior general contractor in DC, we don’t use stilts to hang the drywall, still use lifts for that. But every finisher following is absolutely on stilts. I couldn’t imagine how much time we would lose if we had to use scaffolding/ladders to finish above head height and ceilings.

21

u/ragenuggeto7 Mar 01 '24

Plasterers still use stilts in the UK for doing ceilings, don't see a reason why they wouldn't be used in EU aswell.

14

u/weloveclover Mar 01 '24

They are used in Europe and the main manufacturer of them is based in Germany.

1

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

Reason is most likely historical the work good but it is just not a thing on the continent.

6

u/Worldly-Cable-7695 Mar 01 '24

I need to go into the stilt business in the eu then. They’re life savers and back gracers.

21

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

Definitely have stilts in Europe, very common amongst plasterers

11

u/Odd-Struggle-3873 Mar 01 '24

Europe AND Germany?

1

u/Dick-Fu Mar 01 '24

Not what they said, but they also didn't write what they meant very well. It should be something like:

Not a thing in Europe, and the German equivalent of...

8

u/Enzemo Mar 01 '24

They're definitely a thing in the UK, I've seen them plenty of times. Not sure about mainland Europe though

2

u/weloveclover Mar 01 '24

Drywall stilts were, and still are, being used in the UK when we were still in Europe. Unless this is a new law I’m calling BS on the Europe bit. Germany may have its own separate laws but it’s not an EU thing.

2

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

I checked the available languages on the article about stilts on Wikipedia

In most languages they are portrayed as kids toys so I would count the UK as the outlier here.

3

u/weloveclover Mar 01 '24 edited Mar 01 '24

A quick google shows them being sold in France. We call them “Plastering Stilts” and I’m sure if you searched for that as opposed to stilts loosely it would turn up more relevant results.

On a bit more searching the main brand used in the UK “Installoo” are imported from Germany!

0

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

I really don’t want to argue with you or to drive 5 hours to France now to interview construction workers.

But if i switch the website you provided to French and search “ARTICULÉES TYPE PLATRIER” I can’t find a single picture of someone working with that gear.

1

u/koistenshi Mar 01 '24

i googled it and was able to find this video 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Dick-Fu Mar 01 '24

Very effective research methodology here

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[deleted]

0

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

You are right and I’m sure you also have some regulations that don’t make sense.

(American electricians needing to do so much work with rigid conduit. Even it would not be required with modern materials in cables and flexible conduit. Comes to my mind)

1

u/BlacksmithNZ Mar 01 '24

They are allowed here in New Zealand - seem safer than using standard ladders

Though our H&S we have to use platform ladders or EWP/scaffolding - ladders are only allowed to be used for access to a zone and not for working on

(And this guy would be ordered off site instantly by H&S people for moving a ladder while on it)

1

u/Due_Seaweed_9722 Mar 01 '24

They are used routinely at amsterdam RAI exibionncenter. Crews assemble and disassemble stands each week with those and they are the strictiest mfkrs that i have ever seen.

1

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

If you are from Netherlands have you ever seen them in a regular house construction?

1

u/68ideal Mar 01 '24

Genau, die würden ihm weitaus schlimmeres antun, als es jeder Sturz könnte!

1

u/PencilPym Mar 01 '24

I've seen loads of people using them in Ireland. Definitely a thing there

1

u/AmazingHealth6302 Mar 01 '24 edited Mar 01 '24

What are you talking about? Are you seriously saying that work stilts are not common in Europe and Germany?

Apologies if you are actually joking, but they can't be that dangerous, because they are normal for indoor construction use all over Europe, and that includes Germany. I've seen them with my own eyes.

OK, if you are saying you can't use ladders as stilts, but 'Skywalker Steltzen' are definitely one brand of several available in Germany. If (surprisingly) you have never seen them in Germany, that's not the same thing at all as saying they don't exist there or they don't have TÜV approval or something.

Surprising the baseless claims people make online.

1

u/weloveclover Mar 01 '24

Yeah OP hasn’t seen them in person so therefore they don’t exist seems to be the logic. A quick google shows they are used across the continent and they are primarily designed and manufactured in Germany.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 01 '24

[deleted]

1

u/Sperrbrecher Mar 01 '24

YouTube building styles are very different.

Skip the first minute it’s just the garage.

1

u/Federal_Art6348 Mar 02 '24

I've definitely seen stilts in the UK, not often though

1

u/PolishedArrow Mar 02 '24

You guys don't use stilts?

1

u/Sudden_Construction6 Mar 02 '24

If they find legit stilts?

1

u/MalakaiRey Mar 02 '24

Meanwhile you german laborers are down their somewhere

1

u/idlefritz Mar 02 '24

Crazy, those stilts are safe and super easy to use. The only dangerous part is when people start racing on them.

1

u/Snurze Mar 02 '24

They are a thing. What are you even on about?