3 key questions to ask yourself about buying new ladders for 2021

The festive and New Year period is naturally a time when most of us start taking stock, re-evaluating, and thinking about how we can progress in the year ahead. And while you’re feeling reflective, that makes it a great time to think about the ladders and access equipment for your business, so you can think about not just whether you need to make any new purchases, but also decide exactly what you have to buy. That’s where we can help – we’ve got a huge range of equipment for you to buy here at Browns Ladders. Before you commit to making a purchase though, it’s first a good idea to ask yourself…

Is your existing equipment safe and fit for purpose?

This is the biggest and most important question to address, well before you ask yourself anything else. If you know that a ladder is unsafe for use, then nothing else matters – it needs to be replaced, period. All safety-critical equipment should be subject to regular inspections, the frequency of which depends on how heavily they’re used. Generally, ladders will need to be inspected twice or three times every year, and January is a good time to perform these inspections.

If a professional ladder inspector finds that any of your ladders pose a risk to your employees, then you’ll need to take the ladder out of circulation immediately and waste no time in getting the issue sorted – whether that’s a case of repairing the ladder, or simply buying a replacement.

On the other hand, if all of your access equipment is found to be safe and fit for purpose, you can then move on to asking yourself…

Were you wanting for anything this year?

Perhaps a job cropped up this year that you found you weren’t quite equipped for – your solution could have been to hire the equipment in question for one of your own employees, or hire an outside contractor. Alternatively, you may have simply chosen to pass up the job entirely.

Whatever the exact circumstances, if you found yourself in a similar situation in 2020, it’s a good idea to consider how frequently that scenario is likely to occur again in future, and whether it might be more economical to buy a similar bit of equipment outright, rather than hiring it on a temporary basis. The equipment in question could be a specialist ladder like those you’ll find on our site, or very similar to one of your existing ladders, but in a slightly higher size.

What are your growth plans for 2021?

Now, this is another hugely pertinent question, and one that some people don’t consider quite as early as they probably should do. Do you have any plans to expand your business in the coming 12 months, and provide new services that you’ll need brand new or particularly specialised equipment for? Or, are you planning on contracting for any new clients who could end up requesting services from you that you’re not quite ready yet to provide?

On a similar note – are you planning on taking on new staff? You might find that your existing inventory of equipment isn’t quite sufficient for an expanded workforce, and could leave one employee short of vital tools right when they need them most. New employees with particular skillsets will also need the proper equipment to match the requirements of their jobs – if you’re planning on hiring any electricians, for example, they’ll need to be equipped with fibreglass ladders as a matter of course. When it comes to working with electricity, the basic laws of physics say that aluminium ladders won’t cut the mustard!

And if you’ve answered all these questions and concluded that yes, you do need some new access equipment… well, you’re in exactly the right place. If you’re looking for a particularly versatile solution, we recommend our combination ladders, but we also have a wide range of roof ladders and step ladders in stock too. Feel free to browse our range, or if you’ve got any questions or need any advice, feel free to get in touch by giving us a call on 01282 615517, and we’ll be happy to see how we can help.