Ladder, 8 ft

Eight-foot wooden ladder with pegged rungs.

Two shaped rails with rungs let into them and pegged, eight feet from foot to top. Every house with a loft has one, and most take it up behind them at night. The rungs are the failure point — a rung that has dried and shrunk in its socket gives way under a heel with no warning at all, which is why a careful owner knocks each one before trusting the ladder to a load.