Hire a scaffold urgently

What urgent hire actually means here

Urgent means a fixed arrangement rather than a promise: order before 15:00 and we deliver the next working day, anywhere in the Netherlands. That is not an exception you have to request, it is the normal way things run. So you do not need to call and ask whether it can be faster, you only need your booking confirmed before that time. What happens afterwards depends on the route planning rather than on you.

The 15:00 cut-off exists because the next day routes are planned after that point and the sets are made ready. A booking that arrives at a quarter past three falls into the day after. For a job that has to start on Monday that means arranging it before three on Friday, not on Friday evening. Bear in mind too that a weekend is not a working day, so a Saturday booking arrives on Tuesday.

The urgency makes no difference to the equipment. You hire the same mobile scaffold material as someone planning three weeks ahead, with the same build options and the same complete set. There is no separate rush stock with limited models, so you do not have to shape your job around whatever happens to be available. Simply choose the height you need.

Key facts

The details to have ready before you book

An urgent booking stalls on missing information and almost never on availability. Anyone with the four basic details to hand is finished in a few minutes, while anyone who has to go and measure halfway through loses exactly the hour they were trying to save. So gather them before you open the configurator, even though that feels like a detour. Most of the list below can be answered from your own doorstep.

This is what you need, and every item is something you can establish without tools. Write them down or put them in a note on your phone, because you do not want to walk back outside halfway through booking. The five points below are together enough to complete a reservation. Measure the passage with a tape rather than with your arms, because that is easily ten centimetres out.

Of those four, working height is the only one people genuinely hesitate over, which is why the next section deals with it separately. The other three are simply facts. If you do not know the address of the job by heart, look that up first, because nothing can be planned without a correct address and everything then shifts by a day.

• the delivery address of the job, including house number and any suffix
• the working height you need, or the highest point you have to reach
• the start date and the number of days you want to keep the scaffold
• the width of the narrowest passage to where the tower will stand
• a spot on site where the parts may be unloaded

Working out the height without measuring first

Working height is platform height plus two metres, because an adult reaches roughly two metres above the surface they stand on. So if you know what you have to reach, you also know which scaffold you need. If the gutter sits at six metres, the matching platform height is four metres. Calculating down from the highest point of the job works faster than building the sum up from the ground.

Without a laser or a long tape to hand, use the storeys of the building instead. There is an indication per floor from the first floor up to the fifth, and the working height page then lets you choose metre by metre. That is accurate enough to select a model, especially since the adjustable feet and the platform position still give you room to adjust.

If you fall between two heights, take the higher of the two. A tower that is slightly too tall can be built one level lower, while one that is too short cannot be stretched and means a second delivery. Our range covers working heights from 4.2 to 14.2 metres, so in practice there is always a step above the height you first had in mind.

Choosing the right model quickly

Under time pressure people choose on height alone far too often, while the width of the access route matters just as much. A tower that cannot get round the back ends up at the front, which is no solution for facade work at the rear. So walk the route from the street to the job in your head and measure the narrowest point. The table below shows what each model is meant for.

The full dimensions per model are set out in the guide on mobile scaffold dimensions. If an urgent job leaves you torn between two models, take the one that fits through your narrowest passage, even when the other one works more comfortably. Limited working room can be solved by repositioning more often, a tower that is too wide cannot.

Collecting it yourself when it has to be today

If it genuinely cannot wait until the next working day, collecting the equipment yourself is the fastest route. That is free by appointment at Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam. You make an appointment so the set is ready when you arrive and you are not waiting while somebody puts it together. If you are in the region, that often gets you finished sooner than waiting for a delivery slot.

Do take the dimensions into account. The parts of a mobile scaffold are long, so you need a van, a trailer or a car with a long load space. What fits and what does not, and which alternatives exist, is covered in the guide on hiring a mobile scaffold without a trailer. If you are unsure about your vehicle, ask before you set off.

The deposit is higher for self collection than for delivery: it is 1000 euro for the RS51 and RS52, 750 euro for the MiTower and 150 euro for the room scaffold. So allow for that before you drive over. The amounts are explained under the scaffold deposit, and the money is back within one working day after the equipment returns. Bring somebody along to load as well, because the long components are awkward to lift into a van on your own.

Delivery at a fixed amount per province

Delivery and collection are covered by a fixed amount per province. Nothing is calculated per kilometre and no extra journey is added afterwards, even if you live at the edge of the service area. That is useful when you are in a hurry, because you know what transport does to the total without waiting for a quotation first. The amounts are on the delivery costs page.

What the driver needs from you is limited but decisive: an address that is correct, a spot where the parts may be left, and somebody who can be reached. If you cannot be there yourself, tell us who will be and where the set may be put down. A delivery nobody can accept moves to the next working day, and at that point your urgency is gone.

Think about the spot itself as well. A drive with a car on it, a skip in front of the door or a freshly laid garden all make unloading harder than it needs to be. Clear the space before the driver arrives, even if it is only two square metres. What else is involved in transport is covered under scaffold delivery costs.

Count the assembly time into your planning

We deliver the equipment in parts and do not build it for you. On an urgent job that is the point most often forgotten: the scaffold is at your door at eight, but it is not standing yet. You assemble it yourself, using the manual and the instruction video supplied with your booking. So count that time in if you have a contractor or a painter booked for the same morning.

Watch the instruction video before the parts arrive, so you are not learning the sequence on the pavement. The step by step assembly guide keeps to the fixed order: base frame with adjustable feet, castors on the brake, first platform, braces, and only then higher. Working in pairs is noticeably quicker, particularly from the second platform level upwards. Put the manual somewhere it stays dry, because you reach for it during assembly more often than you expect.

Plan the dismantling too. At the end of the hire period the scaffold has to be back in parts at the spot where it was dropped, and that takes less time than building but not zero. Anyone who forgets on collection day ends up rushing while the driver waits. Allow half an hour in your planning and it stops being an issue.

What actually delays an urgent delivery

Nearly all delay on an urgent job comes from the customer side and almost never from stock. It is the small things that cost a minute beforehand and a day afterwards. They are also entirely foreseeable, because they recur in the same shapes every week. Run through the list below before you confirm and you will remove most of them at once.

These are the stumbling blocks that recur most often, and each of them costs exactly one day when you miss it. What they have in common is that they cannot be fixed on the day itself, however fast you react. So run through them while you can still change the booking. All six of them come past us every week, so you would certainly not be the first to hit one.

The last point is the hardest to recover from. A height chosen too tightly only shows once the tower is standing, and by then half a day has gone. So when in doubt take the height above and build one level lower. The wider list of points for the whole hire period is in the mobile scaffold hire checklist.

• an address without the house number suffix, so the run ends at the neighbours
• nobody present at the agreed delivery moment
• a gate or passage that turns out narrower than the chosen model
• no clear space to unload the parts, for example a parked car
• a working height chosen too tightly for the job
• a booking that arrives just after 15:00 and therefore shifts a day

How many days to book when you are in a hurry

The first hire day is charged at the full rate and every following day costs 5 percent of that day rate. That changes the sum considerably on an urgent job: an extra day is cheap, while a second delivery run is not. Anyone planning tightly and then overrunning pays mostly in time and hassle. So book a day more generously rather than exactly.

On an urgent job you also rarely know how the work will go, because you had no chance to prepare it. Rain, a surprise behind the render or a supplier arriving late can easily cost you half a day. With one or two days of margin built in, none of that becomes a problem. The trade off between short and long is set out in how many days to hire a scaffold.

If you want to know exactly what a given period does for your model, use the configurator or look at the daily rate. That shows the difference between two, four and seven days straight away. All rates per model are gathered on the prices page. Count in the days you are not working but the tower stays standing, such as a Sunday, since those are charged too.

Sorting the deposit without losing time

On delivery the deposit is 500 euro for the RS51, the RS52 and the MiTower, and 150 euro for the room scaffold. For self collection the deposit is 1000 euro for the RS51 and RS52, 750 euro for the MiTower and 150 euro for the room scaffold. Knowing that in advance means it is no longer a surprise at the moment you want to finish an urgent booking.

After the equipment is returned the deposit comes back within one working day. On a short job that often means the money is back before the next payment leaves your account. The condition is that the equipment returns complete and undamaged, so count the parts when dismantling just as carefully as when building. There is more on this under the scaffold deposit.

If a brace or a toe board seems missing at the end, look in the garden and behind the skip before reporting anything. In practice the part is almost always still there, just not on the pile. If it really is gone, report it before collection day so the paperwork runs cleanly and the settlement does not stall. Reporting it late is what holds up a settlement, not the missing part itself.

What to do right now if you need a scaffold tomorrow

Start with the highest point of your job and subtract two metres; that is your platform height. Then measure the narrowest passage to the spot where the tower will stand and use that to choose between the narrow and the wide version. Look up the exact address, including any suffix, and decide how many days you want. With those four details the booking takes minutes.

If you cannot work it out, or your situation does not fit the standard picture, send a photo of the facade and the width of your gate through WhatsApp. When you are in a hurry that is usually faster than puzzling on alone. If you would rather have something in writing, use the form on the contact page.

To check in advance whether your town falls within the delivery area, look at the page listing our locations. Practical questions about delivery, assembly, extension and return are answered separately under frequently asked questions, so you do not have to ask them at the moment you are short of time. Delivery and collection there are covered by a fixed amount per province, so you know the figure in advance.