What makes a step stool safe or not safe? Why are some step stools more dangerous than others? Let’s take a look at the construction of a step stool first.
What is the step made of; plastic, metal, wood…a combination of plastic and metal? Then look at the design of the step stool; does the step have legs, does the step have a load rating, does it fold, does it have rubber pads to keep it from sliding? All of this plays a part of telling if the step stool is safe or not.
Let’s start with the material the step stool is constructed from. There are plastic step stools made very cheaply and are intended for use by little children. You can usually tell by how thick the plastic is on the step. Thin plastic (1/16 – 1/8 inch) step stools are not designed to hold very much weight, so they should only be used by young kids trying to reach a water fountain or wash their hands/brush their teeth. However, if you find a plastic step stool that has thick plastic, maybe a double wall construction, you may find that it is more of a heavy duty step stool, especially if the step has a load rating of 500 pounds. Just because a step stool is made from plastic doesn’t make it a cheap step. Survey the step, see if it slides on the floor, and look at its construction design.
Metal step stools tend to be from 2 different schools of design, either heavy duty (heavy weight), or folding (so they store easily). There can be spring loaded rollers on the bottom of the step stool or the manufacturer may make the step platforms from plastic to keep the step from being too heavy.
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Wooden steps are commercially made for kids and can be painted or designed with children’s cartoon characters on them. The wooden step stools tend to be very sturdy, but usually lack non-slip pads on the bottom to keep them from sliding. Wooden steps are easy to make in your wood shop or by maintenance personnel at retirement homes, however, these wooden steps do not weather well. So over time the homemade wooden step stool will deteriorate and become unsafe for adults or even kids to use.
David C. DuPont had invented the safest Shurestep step stool not for his own gratification but specifically to help people prevent unwanted accident like he had before while using unsafe crate to stand on. That incident pushed David to create a more stable, sturdy and safest step stool anyone could use. Together with this excellent invention, David offers a unique and great guarantee that no one could just ignore. Try to visit his site for more info about the world’s known safest step stool.
