It took the crew from F&F Steel three days to get the ladders installed. They started off by getting the new ladder for the great room in place next to the old one. Originally we thought they might have to bring in a crane, but the three guys managed to manhandle the very heavy ladder into place on their own.
Once they had it in close position, they cut the old ladder off the brackets. A saving grace on this project was that they were able to reuse the brackets that attached the old ladder to the wall, so they didn’t have to excavate huge portions of the wall to locate the studs. The guy who came out to do the measuring had specifically taken into account the existing brackets so the new ladder was manufactured to attach to it. It was then a “simple” process for one of the crew to hang off the side of the building and weld it into place. The welder they used would make my father, a welding engineer, proud. Here’s a shot of it and then of our own little unit that comes in very handy for all sorts of projects here.
Here’s a vid showing just how slow and methodical the crew were about getting things attached properly:
The ladder on the studio required a bit more work on the part of the crew. The annoying location of the existing ladder led us to decide to have the new ladder installed on the other side of the building. This meant the new ladder could start at ground level, but it also meant the ladder and its cage were simply mammoth, nor could they reuse any existing brackets.
One happy circumstance resulting from the great flood of 2017 was that the studs were easy to find, as the drywall on the inside of that exterior wall had been removed. This allowed the ladder to be manufactured to work with the existing structure and no extra demolition was necessary. Here’s a shot of the lower section of that wall so you can get an idea of what I mean.
After the first day the ladders were in place, and then the massive cages were attached to them.
Soon enough, everything was welded into place. All that remained was painting them.