The best ladders

From painting the nursery to changing a light bulb or hanging holiday lights, everyday life often calls for a ladder.
The Little Giant 22-Foot Multi-Use Ladder is our top choice because it allows for safe use up high, in stepladder configuration, and even on the stairs.

If you find yourself teetering on top of a chair as you reach for a burned-out light bulb, you need to get a ladder. If it’s time to paint a room with a ceiling much taller than seven feet, it’s ladder time. If there are trees to prune, strands of lights to hang, or gutters to be cleaned, then a good ladder is a great idea.

Buying a ladder is no time to pinch your pennies. According to the National Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI), there are more than 164,000 annual emergency room visits caused by ladder falls, and as many as 300 annual deaths from falls off ladders. And we’re not talking about people tumbling down several stories off of huge industrial-grade ladders: Most ladder fall deaths occurred after a drop of fewer than ten feet.

While I’m not a certified home inspector, I do own three ladders and have been through a few more in my day. From repairs in and around the house to landscaping to hanging pictures to replacing scores of bulbs over the years, I can say I’ve certainly never regretted the fact that we’ve always chosen decent hardware in the ladder department.

If all you need are a few extra feet of height to reach shelves in the kitchen or light fixtures in the bathroom, then a smaller stepladder is fine. If you’re painting a room or trimming some smaller trees, an A-frame ladder is a perfect choice. But if you need to be fifteen or twenty feet off the ground (or more), then you need to be ready to spend a chunk of change. It’s an investment in safety and efficiency.

Fortunately, many modern ladders are so adaptable that they can elevate you more than twenty feet into the air for some gutter cleaning or roof repair or can fold down into a five-foot stepladder perfect for use in the garage or kitchen. We’ve included many different types of ladders to suit different needs.

Here are the best ladders:

Best overall: Little Giant 22-Foot Velocity Multi-Use Ladder
Best for painting: Louisville Ladder FS1508 Fiberglass Ladder
Best stepladder: Rubbermaid RM-3W Folding 3-Step Stepladder
Best portable: Ohuhu EN131 Telescopic Extension Ladder

Updated on 8/12/2020. We updated prices, links, and formatting.

The best overall

The Little Giant 22-Foot Multi-Use Ladder is versatile enough for use all around the home and capable enough for use at commercial construction sites.

You know that old adage about using the right tool for the job? Well that's true with more than just hammers, screwdrivers, or monkey wrenches. You need to use the right ladder for the task at hand, too. Fortunately, the Little Giant 22-Foot Velocity Multi-Use Ladder is essentially four different ladders in one, so this one tool can be just right for everything from painting the walls of a stairwell to cleaning the gutters of a two-story home to refinishing a ceiling.

At its full extension, the Little Giant Velocity offers you 22 feet of added height, perfect for reaching the roofline of most homes or smaller commercial facilities. It can also be folded into a freestanding A-frame configuration for use beneath trees or when you're working on walls or ceilings. With its sections adjusted to disparate lengths, you can use this ladder on a staircase and feel as stable as you would on flat ground.

The Little Giant 22-Foot Velocity Multi-Use Ladder exceeds all ANSI and OSHA safety standards, and if it's good enough for the professionals, it's probably good enough for your home. It supports up to 300 pounds, so go ahead and haul some hardware up there with you.

Pros: Versatile configurations, good weight capacity, stable and durable

Cons: Expensive option, proper use requires patience and practice

The best for painting

Foto: Source: Louisville

The Louisville Fiberglass Ladder is not only the perfect height for most residential painting projects, but its clever molded-in features, like a paint can hanger and slots for brushes, make the work cleaner, faster, and safer, too.

Most homes built in the last twenty years have a minimum ceiling height of nine feet. Many newer homes have ten and twelve-foot ceilings, too. With the eight-foot-tall Louisville Ladder FS1508 Fiberglass Ladder, it will be easy for you to reach the ceilings and of course all the wall space in almost any home, or in most commercial locations, too.

Painting requires an A-frame-style ladder. You can't very well lean the top rung of a ladder against the wall you intend to paint, after all, and if you're working on a ceiling, there might not even be any walls nearby that could offer support.

While projects like as changing out a light fixture or swapping an air filter might last only a matter of minutes, painting a room (or exterior) means spending a lot of time on that ladder, so you need to choose one that's stable and sturdy, which this ladder is. Each step is secured with six rugged tubular steel rivets, while the feet consist of thick rubber pads with multiple squares in a waffle iron pattern that allows for excellent stability on all sorts of surfaces.

What sets this ladder away from the herd of other A-frame painting ladders is what you'll find up top. The plastic molded top of this unit features slots perfect for paintbrushes and other tools, a wide cup-holder space suitable for smaller cans of paint or stain (or a cup), a hook for a paint can, and nooks for screws, nails, and other hardware. Why climb up and down all the time when you can stash the stuff you need close at hand?

This ladder comes in multiple height options, though we recommend the 8- or 10-foot option.

Pros: Lightweight and sturdy, convenient tool organization, stable foot design

Cons: Quality control issues see some "new" ladders arrive with damage

The best stepladder

Foto: Source: Rubbermaid

The Rubbermaid Folding 3-Step Stepladder puts those highest shelves and cabinets in easy reach and then tucks away behind the door or in the closet.

The right tool for the right job doesn't always mean the best choice is the biggest, fanciest option out there. This beloved little stepladder weighs in at a mere 13.2 pounds, yet it can safely accommodate up to 200 pounds of weight. For quick tasks like dusting the door frames, wiping down the windows, or grabbing a can of soup from a top shelf in the pantry, it's hard to beat the classic Rubbermaid RMA-3 Folding 3-Step Stepladder.

This handy ladder locks in place in about one second, offering you a top standing height of 27.25 inches above the ground. In most homes, that's enough added elevation for most people to touch the ceiling. When you're finished with this or that little task or project, the stepladder folds flat enough to slide behind any door, to tuck away under a bed or dresser, or even to slip between an appliance and the wall.

You probably won't mind that comfort grip handle on top of the stepladder, either, which helps provide stability during use and easy carrying around the home. The textured steps also help prevent slips.

Pros: Good price for good quality, folds flat for storage, easy to move around house

Cons: Not suitable for outdoor use

The best portable

Foto: Source: Ohuhu

The Ohuhu Telescopic Extension Ladder can tuck away into the trunk of a car and be carried around under one arm, yet it extends to 12.5 feet.

The first time I saw one of these ladders, it was slung under the arm of the inspector coming to look over, under, and through my house. He was a burly guy, easily 6'2" and 250 pounds, yet he clambered up and down his telescopic Ohuhu ladder a dozen times in the next few hours, folding it down to move it around the house and yard multiple times during the process. When he was done, he collapsed it back into a compact enough package to grab with one hand and casually carry out through the door and into the back seat of a car. I was impressed, to say the least.

The Ohuhu EN131 Telescopic Extension Ladder has a maximum extension of 12.5-feet, which means a person of average height can use it to reach surfaces about fifteen feet off the ground, which is more than enough height for myriad residential and commercial applications.

While this ladder is indeed solid enough for commercial use - and especially for an inspector or contractor on the move - it's ideal for the home where storage space is at a premium. The ladder is just 40.2 inches tall when collapsed down small, and it weighs only a few ounces more than 25 pounds, so most people can move it around with ease.

Pros: Highly portable, compact and easy storage, anti-pinch safety features

Cons: Extending and collapsing can require force and jiggling

Why having a sturdy ladder is important

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A few years back, when my wife and I had just bought our first house, I set out to decorate its rather tall, pointed eaves with Christmas lights. I borrowed a ladder from a neighbor and, despite the fact that it felt a bit rickety, I started upward with strands of lighting wrapped around a shoulder. About halfway up the twenty-foot climb, I started to hear audible creaking and popping noises and felt the ladder buckling.

No, I didn't fall off, but what I did do is climb right the hell down and headed off to a hardware store. A couple hundred dollars later I had a large, rugged 24-foot ladder that stayed stable and steady even when I was upon the last rungs. I still have that ladder and have used it every year since for multiple projects. Did I love spending more than two hundred bucks on a ladder? No, not really. But it was better than becoming a statistic cited by the InterNACHI.

Check out our other DIY and tool buying guides

Foto: Source: Bosch

The best ladders