Upon recently bidding on a church painting job in Perth Amboy, NJ, I called in a scaffolding erection company to set up scaffolding around the alter; the cost $7500.00 to erect and dismantle, not happening. Next I contacted a lift company to scope out job site but there equipment could not make the turn threw the front door due to the pews being in the way. The church did not want the pews removed for whatever reason so I was in an awkward position and did not want to lose the job. By the way this was a water damage job in which above the alter had black water stains above the alter.

So I knew this would have to be accomplished by the use of 2- 36 foot and 1- 40 foot ladders. I had the equipment in my yard under tarps they were made in New Haven, Ct by the Flint Ladder Co. and I bought them in 1985. The question was would they stand the test of being taken out of the “moth balls” and get the job done. In today’s industry wood ladders are laughed at as fiberglass and aluminum are the way to go. So we gave them a shot positioning them between the pews and working them. I must say this was not easy because of the tight squeeze and the weight of the ladders. The 40 footer proved most difficult to raise up and down due to the fact that it was getting hung up on molding that was jutting out of the wall.

While only planning to stain kill the black water marks on the concrete surface and then top coat with a flat latex paint, this was not the case. After the top coat had dried the surface looked uneven. So I changed tactics and instead of using a thick nap roller cover I resorted to a four inch brush. The second application with the brush applied the paint on thicker. This second technique proved successful and the surface appearance when dry looked great. There was a lot of pressure toward the end of the job in that the job had to be finished and equipment had to be taken down before services were held on Sunday.

No matter what pros say about wood ladders these days I was proud of them and they got the job done very well!

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