Ladder-Dok Saves Gutters
By Sean O'Hara
Most old houses have mangled gutters because gutters make lousy ladder supports. Now you can add this ”ladder dock” that’ll take the weight without damage the next time you need to hang Christmas lights or retrieve a stranded Frisbee.
The Pro Ladder-Dok is a steel support which fits into 5” gutters to hold your ladder away from the gutter edge, preventing you from crushing the gutter. It was designed by roofers who are tired of crushing gutters and paying for them – and even more tired of falling off ladders when they slip off jacked-up gutters. As you might have guessed from the picture, the Latter-Dok transferrs the ladder’sweight directly to the house’s to the fascia.
The result: a better sense of stability and far less wear and tear to the gutter. Now your gutter doesn’t have to pay when you hang the holiday lights. You pay only around $27 for the Ladder-Dok. Score!
Pro Ladder Dok [Moheco]
Street Pricing [Google Product Search]
April 23rd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
How are you suppose to get this thing up there before you set up the ladder? I looked on the their site and I didn’t see anything explaining this. If I need to put the ladder up there first to use this thing, what good is it.
April 23rd, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Perfect! i’ve been looking for something like this to tackle my gutters which are perched about 35ft in the air.
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I was just about to ask the same thing Patrick. If this doesn’t ‘attach’ to the ladder, how does one put it in a gutter that might be 2 stories in the air?
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Regarding installation. I would position the ladder against the house directly below the gutter. Ascend the ladder, and reaching overhead, place the Ladder-Dok into the gutter as per the Installation instructions on the website. Then, descend, reposition the ladder onto the Ladder-Dok and climb back up. This should work for all but the most extreme eaves.
But from a practical point, this is probably more applicable for repeated climbing of a ladder in a single position, such as shingle installation. A single careful climb should not damage your gutters.
April 23rd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
I guess I’m thinking that 9/10 times I’m using a ladder up against my gutter it’s because I’m CLEANING my gutters. So I climb, clean, descend, move the ladder. Lather, rinse, repeat. I was hoping that I could somehow use this for a gutter cleaning application because that’s mostly what I need. If I did actually ‘roofing’ work, this would probably be more appealing to me.
April 24th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I think a ladder stabilizer would be easier and more versatile: http://www.wernerladder.com/catalog/details.php?series_id=239
Just set the stabilizer arms lower than the gutter.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:41 am
As to operation, it would seem that while standing on the ladder with the ladder against the gutter you place the ladder dock in the gutter positioned behind the ladder and then pull down on the bar. The leverage you gain from the ladder dock should be plenty enough to push the ladder off the gutter while standing on the ladder, after all most of your weight is actually transferred down the ladder to the ground and not to the gutter.
In response to roscoe, I have a ladder stabilizer from werner and it’s not enough to keep the ladder off my gutters with the large overhang of my roof and my house is pretty standard for my area.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:30 am
You’ll never hurt the gutter just setting a ladder up and climbing to the gutter. As firemanpiper says, stand on the ladder and pull the tool down in place. This thing was designed for power-ladders and men carrying bundles up the ladder. AND, it does not interfere with drip edge installation.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 am
The Pro Ladder-Dok now is available to fit 6″ gutters as well as 5″