When should you do facade maintenance?

The season in which exterior work goes best

For most facade work, late spring to early autumn is the best window. The days are long, temperatures sit in the range where paint and coating do their job, and after a shower the wall dries again within reasonable time. That last point matters at least as much as the temperature, because you almost never work on a surface that stays dry all day. A wall in shade after a wet night can still be damp at noon.

Within that window, late summer is often more comfortable than high summer. A south-facing wall in July gets hot enough that paint cures faster than you can spread it, which leaves visible joins in the work. Work with the sun in that case: start on the side in shade and follow the sun around the building rather than standing directly in it. That also keeps you out of the heat for most of the afternoon.

Early spring is deceptive. Daytime temperatures can be fine, but night frost and morning dew mean the wall is not genuinely dry until late morning. You lose the first hours of every working day that way, and that adds up when you hire a mobile scaffold for a set number of days. Expect to finish less per day in March than in June. Put the sanding and repair work in the morning and the applying in the afternoon during that period.

Key facts

Why cold and damp decide the result

Paint and coating bond to a dry, clean surface. If moisture is sitting in the pores of the timber or in the render, it does not escape once a new layer is over it, and you see that later as blistering or peeling. A wall that looks dry need not be dry inside, particularly after a wet week or on a north side that gets little sun. If you are unsure, wait an extra day rather than coming back a day later to redo it.

Cold works against you differently. At low temperatures drying times lengthen considerably, and a layer that looks dry in the afternoon is not yet dry after sunset. If night frost or dew then settles on it, the bond is ruined before the material has cured. That applies to sealant, adhesive and pointing mortar just as much as to paint. So look not only at the afternoon temperature but at what the night after it will do.

Cleaning is a different matter. Washing a facade or removing algae can be done for much of the year, because afterwards you only have to let it dry and nothing has to bond. Separating the cleaning from the painting therefore lets you plan that part in a quieter period. Cleaning in autumn also means the wall starts the painting season clean. See facade cleaning and algae removal.

Inspecting the facade before you fix a date

Planning starts not with the forecast but with a walk around the building. Go along every side and look specifically at the places where water stands: sills, the joint between frame and brickwork, the back of fascia boards and the line where the downpipe runs against the wall. That is where damage starts, and it decides how many days you will need. Take your phone and photograph what you find, so you can work out the order indoors afterwards.

What you find sets the order of the job. Repairing rot and making good pointing both come before painting, and both need drying time. Anyone who discovers that from the platform runs short of days. Take the trouble beforehand to push a screwdriver into suspect areas; soft timber under an intact coat of paint is the most common surprise. Probe the undersides of sills and the area behind the gutter too, because damage there stays out of sight.

Note the height of the work while you are at it. Working height is platform height plus two metres, so a gutter at six metres means a platform at four. The working height page shows which configuration belongs to which height, within a range of 4.2 to 14.2 metres. Measuring beforehand stops you discovering on day one that you are just too low. Measure from ground level and not from a raised terrace, or your height will be half a metre out.

• Timber: window frames, fascia boards, bargeboards and the undersides of sills
• Pointing and brickwork, especially under the roof edge and around openings
• Sealant joints between frame and wall, which usually split first
• Gutters and downpipes, including the brackets and the joints
• Render and plaster on hollow-sounding or flaking areas
• Grime, algae and moss on the north side and behind planting

Bundling the work into one hire period

A scaffold stands there for the whole facade, not for a single task. That is exactly why everything at that height should be dealt with in one go. Brushing out the gutter, replacing sealant joints, moving a light and painting the frames together take less time than three separate periods, and you pay the delivery charge only once. The same reasoning applies to assembly, since that also happens once per hire period.

Write down before you start what needs doing per section of the facade, working from the top down. High level first, because dirt and sanding dust fall. Anyone who leaves the gutter until last ends up wiping down freshly painted frames underneath it. For the painting itself, the points to watch are set out in facade painting. Work through one elevation at a time rather than one task at a time, so the scaffold has to be moved less often.

• Gutter and roof edge: brush out, inspect and if needed repair the gutter
• Timber: repair wood rot, then sand and paint
• Brickwork: repair the pointing where it has worn away
• Frames: replace sealant joints and touch up the paintwork on the frames
• Small fitting jobs that happen to be at height, such as an outside light or a house number

What each period of the year gives you

The year breaks into periods that each suit different work. Cleaning and inspecting can happen almost any time, painting wants the middle of the season, and repairs to timber or pointing sit somewhere between the two. Making that distinction lets you move part of the work outside the busiest months and keeps the summer free for what genuinely cannot be done otherwise. It also spreads the load across your own diary instead of forcing everything into two summer weeks.

The table below sets the periods side by side, with the conditions you can expect and the work that suits them. Use it as a starting point and correct it against the forecast for the week itself, because a dry October beats a wet June for painting. Pay particular attention to night temperatures and the chance of dew, because those decide whether a coat cures.

What you can still finish in autumn

Autumn is not a lost season, but it is one that needs sharper planning. The days shorten, so you have fewer hours in which the wall is dry and a coat can still flow out before it gets dark. Work from the top down in that period and keep the last hours of the day for work that does not have to dry, such as tidying up or masking. Start earlier in the day than you would in summer as well, because the light is noticeably weaker by four o'clock.

It is also the period when the gutter work matters most. A blocked gutter or a leaking downpipe keeps a wall wet all winter, and that is exactly where next year's damage starts. Cleaning the gutter is covered in gutter cleaning, and that work is still sensible once painting no longer is. Check the brackets and the joint to the downpipe while you are there, because those sag without anyone noticing.

Winter work: what is possible and what is not

In winter most finishing work drops away. Paint and coating have drying times that stretch too far in the cold, and a layer that has not cured before frost arrives is a layer you will redo. Sealant and pointing mortar have the same problem. Large exterior painting jobs are better pushed to spring, even if a fine week appears in between. A single mild week does not draw the moisture out of a wall that has been wet for months.

What does work is anything that involves no bonding: inspecting, cleaning, removing moss and algae, brushing out a gutter, replacing a damaged pipe and taking down loose fittings. That is useful work to do in a quiet period, so the facade is ready for finishing as soon as spring arrives. You then start in March with sanding rather than with a wall covered in green growth.

Working at height in winter does need extra care. A wet or frozen platform is slippery and the days are short. What changes in terms of planning, clothing and safety is covered in hiring a scaffold in winter and in the rules for working safely at height. Bear in mind too that thick gloves leave you with much less feel in your fingers while climbing.

Rain, wind and working at height

Rain mainly costs you time; wind costs you safety. A half-hour shower means waiting afterwards until the surface is dry again, and that takes longer than the shower did. For that reason, do not plan a full day of painting on a day of scattered showers, but use such a day for sanding, masking or repair work that tolerates a few drops. That keeps the dry days free for the work that genuinely needs them.

Wind is a different calculation. There is more wind at height than at ground level, and a scaffold with sheeting on it catches that wind like a sail. So hang nothing on it that you do not need. What the scaffold has to be able to handle in terms of stability is covered in stabilising and anchoring a mobile scaffold. Sheeting hung up as sun protection looks practical but changes the wind loading completely.

Rain during the hire period is no reason to dismantle. The scaffold can stay outside, provided it is empty and the brakes are on. Take tools and materials off the platform at the end of the day, because they blow off and damage both the scaffold and its surroundings on the way down. A wet platform is also slippery, so adjust your pace and climb with both hands free. The wider safety points are in working safely at height.

Which scaffold suits facade maintenance

For most facade work a mobile scaffold is the logical choice, because you roll it along the wall and finish a complete section at a time. The RS51 is 75 cm wide and passes through gates and along narrow paths to a back garden. The RS52 is 135 cm wide and gives more room and stability, which helps when you have a paint tin, sealant and tools on the platform at once.

Both models have a platform length of 245 cm, so you cover a decent stretch of wall without moving. The equipment is made by Altrex and built to EN 1004, with platforms in load class 3, which works out at 200 kg per square metre. For two people with tools that is ample, provided you spread the weight along the length of the platform. Do not set a bucket of mortar or a stack of materials in the middle of a span.

If the job is small and at limited height, the MiTower is an option: a one-person scaffold up to six metres of working height. Which setup suits which kind of facade work is covered in choosing a scaffold for facade painting. Bear in mind that you assemble it yourself, using the supplied manual and instruction video. We do not erect on site, so count the assembly time into the first day of your planning.

When to book the scaffold and for how long

In season scaffolds are in demand, so book as soon as you have fixed a working week. Order before 15:00 and the scaffold is delivered the next working day, anywhere in the Netherlands. Collecting it yourself is free by appointment at Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam. Delivery and collection sit in a fixed amount per province, which you will find on the delivery costs page. That amount does not change with the length of the hire, so it weighs more heavily on a short period.

Choose a slightly generous period rather than a tight one. The first hire day is the full rate and every following day costs five percent of that daily rate, so a margin of a few days for rain or surprises is relatively cheap. How to choose that period is covered in how many days to hire a scaffold, and the rates are on the prices page. If it does overrun, extending is a matter of letting us know before the collection day arrives.

Tackling a facade in phases over several years

Not every house has to be finished in a single summer. Many people take the facade one side at a time: the front and the street-side frames one year, the rear and the dormer the next. That spreads the work over several seasons and keeps each scaffold period manageable, particularly if you are doing it alongside a job. Do keep a note of which side was done when, because after three years you will not remember.

Do start with the side where the damage is furthest along. That is usually the south-west elevation, which takes the most rain and sun, or a north side that goes green from the damp. What each part of the facade involves is set out in facade maintenance and in painting the rear facade. The rear is usually the elevation that gets postponed longest and therefore needs the most repair work.