Hiring a scaffold in winter: wind, frost and shorter days

What changes about scaffold work in winter

A mobile scaffold behaves in January exactly as it does in June: the same frames, the same platforms, the same assembly order. What changes is everything around it. The ground is wetter or frozen, the platform is slippery, your hands are stiffer, darkness comes early and your materials behave differently. Winter conditions do not make the work impossible, but they demand more preparation per working day than a dry summer morning.

In practice that mainly means more time before you start on the job itself. Sweeping snow and ice off the platform, checking the ground and getting your tools up dry costs half an hour a day that you never need in summer. Count that inside your hire period, because the time runs on regardless in the number of days you have the equipment.

Against that, winter is the right moment for some jobs. Bare trees, little growth against the facade and dry, cold days without harsh sun are pleasant conditions for inspection and cleaning work. The guide on when to carry out facade maintenance sets out which work is best planned when, so you do not write winter off automatically. For facade inspection a clear winter day is even better than a summer day with glare.

Key facts

Wind is the factor that stops the work

In winter, wind is the factor that most often decides a working day. A mobile scaffold is a tall, open structure, and the higher you build the more the wind pulls at it. In strong wind you do not work at height, not even briefly for the last two screws. So look not only at the temperature in the forecast but at the wind expected per part of the day, because that changes faster than the temperature does.

What you arrange beforehand counts double in wind. A scaffold assembled to the manual, standing level, with the stabilisers extended and anchored to the facade where required, is considerably less sensitive than a set-up thrown together quickly. How to go about it is covered in stabilising and anchoring and in working safely at height. Check the anchoring again after a windy night, because that is when something works loose.

Do not hang sheeting, netting or a banner on the structure in winter without thinking it through. Anything that increases the surface catching the wind also increases the force acting on the scaffold. In a spell of persistently bad weather, lowering the set-up or taking it down temporarily is wiser than trying to secure it with extra material. A lower set-up that stays usable all week beats a tall one you cannot climb for three days.

Frost, snow and ice on platform and rungs

The platform and the rungs of the internal ladder are where slipperiness catches you out fastest. A night frost after a rainy day leaves a thin film of ice you cannot see from the ground. So walk round the set-up every morning before you carry material up, and wipe the platform and the rungs dry before you start work. Do the same round at the end of the day, so you know what state the platform is in tomorrow.

Take something with you that works on wet and frozen steel: a sturdy brush, a scraper and a cloth. Road salt is a poor idea on a scaffold, because it attacks equipment and facade; removing it mechanically works better. Piling snow beside you on the platform is unhelpful too, because it melts and leaves you with a wet, slippery floor again.

Watch your footwear and what you carry as well. Treaded soles packed with snow give almost no grip on an aluminium platform. So knock your soles clean at the edge of the platform now and then. Everything else worth knowing about grip is covered in working safely at height. Take a dry cloth up as well, because wet hands on a guard rail slip just as easily.

The ground in winter: frozen, soft or slippery

The ground under your scaffold changes faster in winter than in other seasons. Frozen ground looks solid but thaws during the day, so a set-up that stood level this morning can be out of true by late afternoon. Grass and soil that have been wet for weeks, on the other hand, sink under the castors immediately. So check the set-up more often than you would in summer.

Use base plates or boards to spread the load on soft or uneven ground, and level the scaffold again after you have extended the stabilisers. On a driveway or tiled path, a thin film of ice can let the castors slide during assembly, even with the brakes on. More on that is covered in a mobile scaffold on uneven ground.

• Check the set-up again halfway through the day, because frozen ground thaws.
• Put boards under the castors on grass, soil or gravel to spread the load.
• Sweep snow and ice away under the castors and stabilisers before you assemble.
• Level the scaffold after the stabilisers are extended, not before.
• Avoid positions where meltwater from the roof comes down exactly where you stand.
• Watch for a thin film of ice on tiles and paving, even with the castor brakes on.

Weather situations and what they do to your working day

The overview below lists the winter situations you meet most often in the Netherlands, with what they mean for the scaffold and for your work. The point is not that you go indoors at every shower, but that you know in advance which situation changes your working day and which only asks for one extra action. Run through the rows before you fill in your period, so you know which days to book as slack.

Take the overview with you when you plan your hire period. Anyone hiring in winter who counts only working hours almost always books short, because an average winter week contains one or two days on which you make little or no progress. Booking generously costs only 5 percent of the day rate per extra day, so that slack is cheap.

Watch for two situations at once as well, which is common in winter. A day with thaw and wind together means both ground that settles and a structure being pulled at hard. Working on is rarely wise then, even though each condition on its own looks manageable. In that case see whether you can bring an interior job forward. A short check of the forecast the evening before settles it either way.

Short days: keeping enough working light

In December and January an average working day gives you only a limited number of usable daylight hours, and the last of them are dim. You notice it most on a north-facing facade, where the light goes earlier. So plan the work that needs good sight, such as painting, sealing and judging wood rot, for the middle of the day, and keep carrying and clearing for the edges.

Working light on the platform helps, provided you position it properly. A lamp shining straight into your face makes sight worse rather than better. Set the lamp lower and aim it at the facade, so you see the surface you are working on. Keep the cable off the platform, because that is a trip hazard you overlook precisely when the light fades.

Bear in mind too that dismantling in the dark is a poor idea. Plan the end of your job so you can take the scaffold down and count the components in daylight. Doing it by feel makes it far more likely something is left behind, and you only notice when the deposit is settled. Plan dismantling half a day earlier than you would in summer, and you avoid working in the dark.

Drying times for paint, sealant and coating in the cold

Virtually all paint, sealant, coating and impregnating agent needs more time in the cold than on a summer day. The packaging states the temperature and humidity at which the product can be applied, and in winter those limits are not theoretical. Work below them and the layer adheres poorly or fails to cure at all, which puts you back on the same spot a few weeks later.

So plan your hire period generously. The rate structure helps: the first hire day costs the full rate and every following day 5 percent of that day rate, so extra waiting days are relatively cheap. A second hire period because your paint would not cure is not. Work your period out on the prices page before you choose a date.

Look at the time of day as well. A coat applied at three has to cure through the coldest and dampest part of the afternoon, whereas the same coat at ten still gets several hours of reasonable conditions. The guide on how many days to hire a scaffold shows how to count those waiting days. Put those waiting days in your planning as real days, not as spare hours you fit in somewhere.

Jobs that suit the winter well

Not all outdoor work has to wait for spring. Cleaning gutters and downpipes makes sense straight after leaf fall, and it is work where a wet day hardly matters. The same goes for inspection: roof edges, fascia boards, pointing and lead flashing are perfectly assessable on a cold, dry day, and leaks and damp patches are often more visible in winter than in a dry summer.

Repairs that do not depend on drying times, such as replacing a gutter bracket, a roof tile or a section of bird protection, are winter jobs too. Check the attention points per job under gutter cleaning and facade inspection, so you know what material to take up before you put the scaffold up. Carry the material up in a closed case, so it stays dry if it starts to rain or snow.

If the weather stays poor for weeks, turn your attention indoors. Painting a stairwell, a high ceiling or an interior wall can be done all year and does not depend on the weather. See using a mobile scaffold indoors and the application page on interior painting for what that involves. Interior work also has the advantage of a predictable period, with no days lost to wind.

Model and working height in winter conditions

Working height is platform height plus 2 metres, and the range covers working heights from 4.2 to 14.2 metres. In winter it is extra worthwhile not to choose higher than you need: a lower set-up is less sensitive to wind, faster to assemble and simpler to check on a cold morning. Work out your height via working height before you choose a model.

The RS51 is the narrow mobile scaffold at 75 cm wide, the RS52 the wide one at 135 cm. Both have a platform length of 245 cm. In winter the wide version is often more comfortable, because you can keep more material dry beside you and walk across a slippery platform to the ladder less often. Compare them on mobile scaffold hire.

For interior work there is the room scaffold RS44, which fits through a standard interior door from around 70 cm. If you work alone and stay below 6 metres working height, the MiTower is a light option you reposition without a second person. All equipment is made by Altrex and complies with EN 1004, in load class 3 at 200 kg per square metre.

Delivery, collection and the scaffold between jobs

Order before 15:00 and the scaffold is delivered the next working day, anywhere in the Netherlands. In winter it pays to plan that delivery a little more generously than strictly needed, so you have a day of slack if the wind gets up on your starting day. Delivery and collection sit in a fixed amount per province; what applies to your address is on delivery cost.

Self-collection is free by appointment at Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam. In winter, allow for loading and unloading in the dark or on an icy pavement taking longer, and for wanting to keep the components dry and clean. The deposit is higher on self-collection than on delivery; every amount is listed on the scaffold hire deposit page. Bring gloves that still let you handle the couplings, because cold aluminium is unforgiving.

If the scaffold stands idle for a few days because the weather is against you, leave it assembled with the stabilisers extended and the castor brakes on, as long as the wind allows. In persistently bad weather, lowering or dismantling is wiser. The guide on the hire checklist covers what to check before you climb back up. After a storm, walk the whole set-up again before you climb, from the castors to the top rail.

Preparing a winter working day

Most winter setbacks are not bad luck but poor preparation. Anyone who works out on the morning itself that the platform is under ice, has no brush to hand and left the sealant indoors loses an hour before anything happens. A fixed morning round of the set-up takes five minutes and saves that hour every day. Write the round down once and it becomes routine for everyone who works on the scaffold.

Take your materials seriously too. Sealant and paint that have stood outside in freezing conditions can no longer be applied as intended, so keep them indoors and only carry up what you will use that morning. Also run through the hire checklist and the step-by-step assembly guide, so nothing has to be worked out in the cold. Lay everything out the evening before in a dry spot, so the morning does not start with searching.

Finally, think about yourself. Cold hands work more slowly and less precisely, which shows most on work that needs feel, such as sealing or placing small screws. Take gloves you can keep on while working, plan breaks indoors rather than on the platform, and keep something warm within reach. A working day you finish comfortably is worth more than one you push through badly, and it keeps the quality of the work up as well.

• Check the wind forecast per part of the day the evening before, not just the temperature.
• Wipe platform, rungs and the ground under the castors dry before you carry material up.
• Keep paint, sealant and coating indoors and take up only what you will use that day.
• Set working light low on the platform and aim it at the facade, not at yourself.
• Check the set-up again halfway through the day if the ground was frozen.
• Plan dismantling and counting components in daylight rather than at the end of a dark day.