The simplest equipment on site. The #3 citation in the country.

The 3-foot extension rule generates more ladder citations than any other provision: when using a portable ladder to access an upper landing, the side rails must extend at least 3 feet above the landing — or the ladder must be secured with a grab device available. It takes one photo from a sidewalk to document the violation.

Close behind: using ladders for something other than their designed purpose (a stepladder leaned folded against a wall, a ladder as a scaffold plank), setting up on unstable or slippery surfaces without securing, and continuing to use ladders with broken rungs or split rails that should have been tagged out at the morning inspection.

Ladder compliance is mostly discipline: a competent-person inspection routine that actually removes damaged ladders, setup habits that maintain the 4-to-1 angle for extension ladders, three-point-contact climbing enforced as policy, and matching the ladder's duty rating and material to the task — fiberglass near electrical work, never metal. §1926.1060 adds the training obligation: employees must be trained by a competent person to recognize and minimize ladder hazards.

Note the jurisdictional split: construction ladder work lives in 1926 Subpart X, while general industry fixed and portable ladders are governed by §1910.23 — with different specifics, like the fixed-ladder fall protection phase-in that replaced cages with ladder safety systems for new installations.

Foremen don't carry Subpart X in their heads. With RegLogic, "how far above the roof does the ladder need to stick up?" typed on a phone at the base of the ladder returns §1926.1053(b)(1) in color-coded formatting — offline, if the site has no signal. Pin it, note your company's inspection tag system alongside it, and every crew answers the question the same way.