Stairs & Scaffolding
Buy and sell ladders, stairs and scaffold frames in Guatemala.
A Guatemalan house is rarely finished in one go: the second floor, the roof terrace and the render on the façade often come years later, and each stage needs something to stand on. The aluminium stepladder for painting a ceiling, the fibreglass extension ladder an electrician leans against the wall and the scaffold frames a site foreman stacks to raise block walls all change hands new and pre-owned, along with welded steel spiral stairs taken out in a remodel. On anything you climb, the label and the joints matter more than the brand, and both can be checked before any money changes hands.
Stepladders, extension ladders, hinged ladders and scaffold towers:
which one you need depends on whether there is a wall to lean on. A stepladder stands on its own and suits ceilings, light fittings and shelving indoors. An extension ladder needs a wall or a post and reaches the gutter and the second-floor window. A multi-position ladder, the hinged kind, folds into either shape but is heavier than both. Once a job runs for days along a façade, a ladder gives way to scaffolding: steel frames joined by cross braces into sections that stack one on another, with platforms, levelling screws for uneven ground and caster wheels to roll a tower across a floor. Narrow frames are made to fit on a sidewalk. Drills and grinders for the work up there are under tools, and the block you are raising under building materials.
Fibreglass or aluminium, and the cables outside the window:
on many Guatemalan streets the power and service cables run along the front of the house at about second-floor height, which is exactly where an extension ladder ends up. Aluminium conducts and fibreglass rails do not, so anyone working near wiring, whether an electrician, a painter on a façade or someone fixing a sign, belongs on fibreglass. Aluminium is lighter, cheaper and fine indoors. The other thing to read is the duty rating on the side label. Type III is a household ladder; Type I and IA are built for daily trade use by a heavier person carrying tools and a bucket of paint. Truper states the load in kilograms instead, so read that against your own weight plus whatever you carry up.
A six-foot stepladder in aluminium or fibreglass:
a 6-foot aluminium stepladder costs around Q700 to Q850 new, and the same height in fibreglass about Q1,000 or a little more. Used, a straight and complete aluminium ladder loses little, because there is not much on it to wear out. A fibreglass one is worth whatever the sun has left of it. Scaffold frames behave like the aluminium: steel does not wear with use, it bends and rusts, so a straight set from one maker with all its cross braces and pins keeps far more of its value than a mixed pile.
Rails, rivets, braces and pins on a used ladder or scaffold:
lay a ladder flat and sight down each rail. A bend, dent or crack in a rail ends it, whatever the price. Push every step for play at the rivets, check a stepladder’s spreaders lock flat, and make sure the rubber feet are all there. On fibreglass, run a hand along the rail: if the surface has gone chalky and loose fibres come away, the sun has got into the resin. A missing rating label means nobody can tell you what the ladder carries. On scaffolding, check each frame for bent legs and cracked welds where the crossbars meet the uprights, and look for rust at the joints and inside the tube ends. Make sure the cross braces actually fit the studs on these frames, because makers space them differently and a set mixed from two brands may not brace at all. Count the locking pins too; they are the first thing to go missing.
Frames and ladders once the second floor is up:
that is when most of them change hands, after the walls of the next floor are raised and the render is done. List a ladder by type, height in feet, material and the rating or kilograms on its label, with a photo of the label. For scaffolding, give the number of sections, the frame size and maker, and what goes with them, such as platforms, caster wheels, levelling screws or guard rails, and photograph one section assembled. A metal-shop spiral staircase needs its floor-to-floor height and diameter, because the buyer is measuring it against the opening in their own floor. Someone driving in from Zacapa or San Marcos with a pickup will want to know whether the frames stack flat and how many trips the lot takes, so say it before they set off.