The statistic that surprises people
Most people assume ladder accidents happen to someone doing something obviously reckless, three stories up.
The data says otherwise. In federal injury surveillance, fall heights of six to ten feet account for about half of all emergency-room-treated ladder-fall injuries, and nearly 90% occur from under sixteen feet.
That's a normal extension ladder at a normal house. Which means the risk isn't concentrated in the dramatic scenario — it's concentrated in the everyday one that feels fine.
Why window cleaning specifically is worse than it looks
Ladder safety guidance assumes you're climbing to get somewhere. Window cleaning has you working from the ladder, which introduces every factor that causes falls:
- Reaching sideways. The classic cause. You've got two more feet of glass and moving the ladder is annoying. Your center of gravity crosses outside the rails and that's the fall.
- Both hands occupied. You're holding a squeegee and a cloth. You're not holding the ladder.
- Wet surfaces. Water runs down. It gets on the rungs, on your shoes, on the ground under the feet.
- Soft, uneven ground. Lawns, flowerbeds, and sprinkler-soft soil are what surrounds most windows. A ladder foot sinks an inch on one side and the whole thing shifts.
- Repetition. It's not one climb. It's up, down, reposition, up, down, twenty times. Risk compounds and attention fades.
If you're going to do it anyway
Some people will, and there's a right way:
- 4-to-1 rule. Base one foot out for every four feet of height.
- Level, firm footing. Use a ladder leveler on a slope. Never a board or a brick.
- Three points of contact. Which genuinely means you can't work with both hands.
- Belt buckle inside the rails. If it crosses outside, get down and move the ladder.
- Never the top two rungs.
- Have someone home. Not to hold it — so someone knows if you don't come back in.
- Never in wind or on wet ground.
The thing that makes us different here
Joe is 6'11". A significant share of second-story glass on Davis County homes is within his reach standing on the ground.
That's not a marketing line, it's the actual reason the business works. The most dangerous part of this job is the part we frequently don't have to do at all. And when a ladder genuinely is needed, it's us on it, with the training and the insurance — not you on a Saturday.
The fair conclusion
Ground-floor windows: do them yourself if you want to. It's honest work and it's not dangerous.
Second story: this is the one to hand off. Not because it's difficult, but because the downside is a broken wrist, a broken hip, or worse — and the upside is saving a couple hundred dollars.
Let us take the ladder part. Get a free quote or call (801) 698-9900.