How to get on to the roof?

Question

I have a house with a Gable Roof. By eyeballing it looks like it's slanted at about 45 degrees and one side is approximately 6 meters (20 feet) long.

Since it's a pretty old roof, there are a few small holes and cracks in it. While there are some good reasons for replacing it entirely, that's a big and expensive project for which I don't have the funds right now. The holes are small enough to be patched with some bitumen tape, so that's what I'd like to do.

Buuut... how do I get up there? I mean, I have a decent ladder which can reach the lower edge of the roof and a little beyond that, but it's nowhere near long enough to reach the top (or even the lowest hole to be patched). In addition I highly doubt the roof tiles would support my weight if I was to just walk on them.

I've seen people use special roof ladders for this purpose. They're like normal ladders, but at the very end there's a perpendicular section. You hook that perpendicular section on the ridge and then can safely climb that on the roof. Your weight is then distributed over a larger area via the roof ladder.

However I cannot find anyone selling such a ladder. I could attempt to make one myself out of wood, but I don't trust my woodworking skills enough to make something that won't suddenly come apart under load.

I suspect that there must be some other method that people are using these days to access diagonal roofs, since they are still quite common around here. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Check the attic how the roof is constructed, chances are there is plywood or similar between the rafters. That will easily support your weight (assuming it's not rotten).

The more dangerous aspect is slipping and falling down. 45° slope is very steep and once you start sliding you will have a very hard time stopping yourself.

You can buy roof ladder hooks.

(image from a random amazon listing)

That will attach to your regular ladder and let you hook the ladder to the nook. The wheels are there to get the ladder up or down, you roll the ladder up and then flip it to hook it on. To get it down you flip it over and can then roll it down the roof.