Which scaffold for an apartment?

What makes an apartment different from a house

On a terraced house the scaffold usually stands in the front garden or on the owner's drive, and the owner of the facade is the same person as the client. On an apartment that is different. The ground under your scaffold is often communal, the facade belongs to the owners association and the spot you want to use may be a public pavement or a parking bay. That calls for agreement before you order equipment. Put that step early in your planning, because getting permission often takes longer than the job itself.

The height is a different story as well. An average house has a gutter at a height you reach with a mid-sized build. On an apartment block your work point can sit on the third or fourth residential level, and then you are looking at a much taller scaffold with stabilisers and usually anchoring. Assembly takes longer and the demands on the ground get stricter.

The third difference is access. Parts have to travel through an entrance hall, past a bike store or along a walkway to the spot where you build. A lift is rarely an option for long frames. So walk that route in advance, so you know where the driver can unload and how far you have to carry. In practice that often decides more than the model you pick. On recurring facade maintenance it pays to record that route properly once for the next round.

Key facts

How high a mobile scaffold will take you

The range runs from 4.2 to 14.2 metres working height. That reaches many apartments up to and including the third or fourth residential level, depending on the height of the block. What you actually reach depends not on the number of floors but on the measured distance from the ground to your work point, and that varies sharply between buildings. So always measure it yourself, even when the neighbours say they already know the figure.

The sum is simple: working height is platform height plus two metres, because an adult reaches roughly two metres above the platform. To reach a window frame sitting at nine metres you need a platform at seven metres and therefore a build of around eleven metres working height. The working height page lists every size with what it reaches. It also shows what changes once stabilisers and anchoring come into the build.

For the tallest sizes in the range, look at 14 metres working height. Above that the mobile scaffold stops and other equipment comes into play. How high a mobile scaffold may go at all, and the conditions that come with it, is covered in the guide on how high a mobile scaffold may be. It covers the conditions that come with taller builds as well, including anchoring points.

Setting the working height from the level you need

The safest way to measure is with a long tape or a laser distance meter from the ground, directly below your work point. Do not count floors, because storey heights vary by construction year and by type of block. A post-war walk-up flat and a new-build apartment with tall ceilings end up at very different figures for the same residential level.

Without measuring equipment, the floor pages give a good starting point. For work on the third floor or the fourth floor you can see which sizes get chosen in practice. The guide on how tall a scaffold needs to be per floor explains the method step by step. Take that outcome as a guide and then check it with a real measurement on site.

Always measure to the highest point you still need to reach, not to where you stand. On facade maintenance that is often the top of the gutter or the underside of a roof edge rather than the window below it. Choosing half a metre short means overreaching, and avoiding exactly that is what a scaffold is for. Allow some margin as well if you work with a guardrail in front of you, because that costs reach.

Narrow or wide: RS51 or RS52 on an apartment block

The narrow RS51 is 75 centimetres wide and therefore fits on a pavement, between a planting strip and a facade or in an alley beside the building. The wide RS52 measures 135 centimetres and gives more base area and more workspace, which helps if two people work together or a lot of material goes up. Both carry a platform 245 centimetres long, so either way you finish a good stretch of facade per position.

At greater height the width counts for more. A narrow build at ten metres asks more of the stabilisers and the anchoring than a wide build at the same height. Where space allows, wide is therefore often the calmer choice on an apartment. You will find both models under mobile scaffold hire. So for a narrow build at height the assembly instructions are not a formality but the rule.

In practice the location makes the choice rather than the job. Measure the clear space between the facade and the first obstacle: a hedge, a bike rack, a parking bay or a low wall. If less than a metre and a half is left, it becomes narrow. If there is room, choose wide and give yourself space for tools and material.

The ground around a block is rarely ideal

Around an apartment block there is almost never a flat concrete slab. You are dealing with paving slabs that sit askew, a strip of grass, a dropped kerb or a drain cover exactly where you want to stand. Each of those calls for base plates and for careful levelling with the adjustable feet before you build any higher. Have the base plates ready before you start, so you are not hunting for them halfway up.

A scaffold that sits a centimetre out at ground level is well out of plumb at ten metres. So check not only the base frame but also again halfway up the build. How to handle ground that does not cooperate is covered in the guide on a mobile scaffold on uneven ground. After building, walk once around the scaffold and check that all four castors genuinely bear weight.

• Paving slabs that have sunk or sit loose under a castor
• A strip of grass or planting between pavement and facade
• Drain covers, gullies and inspection hatches where you want to stand
• A dropped kerb or a slope running away from the building
• Parking bays that are in use during your job
• Bike racks, bins and waste containers tight against the facade

Anchoring to the facade once you go higher

On an apartment you almost always reach a height where stabilisers alone are no longer enough. The assembly instructions state from which height you anchor and how many points that takes. Anchoring means the scaffold is tied to fixed points on the facade, so it cannot tip when wind funnels along the building. The number of points and their positions follow from those instructions rather than from what happens to be convenient.

On a block that is something to agree in advance, because you are fixing to a facade that is not yours alone. Discuss with the owner or the association where anchoring is allowed and how the holes are made good afterwards. In many cases it can be done to a window frame or a balcony structure rather than into the brickwork.

Wind also plays a stronger part along a tall building; between two blocks there is often more wind than at street level. How to keep a build stable and where to place the points is covered in the guide on stabilising and anchoring. If you are unsure about the approach, we will look at a photo with you on WhatsApp.

Balcony, roof terrace and walkway as a base

Sometimes the ground is simply not an option and you want to work from a balcony or roof terrace. That is possible, but it calls for a different assessment than standing at ground level. You need to know whether the structure carries the weight, whether the floor is level enough and whether you can get the parts up there at all via a stairwell or a walkway.

The height counts differently too. A scaffold on a balcony on the second level already stands high, so the build beneath it is small but the fall height is not. Guardrails and toe boards are no formality there but the only thing between you and the edge of the balcony. Do not push the scaffold tight against the balcony edge either, but keep working room on the side you climb.

The practical side of that set-up is covered in the guide on a scaffold on a balcony or roof terrace. For work on the facade itself, such as painting a facade, standing at ground level is usually simpler and safer. A balcony is mainly worth it when you need a roof edge that is out of reach from the ground, for instance above an extension.

Indoor work in an entrance hall or stairwell

Not every job on an apartment sits on the outside. A tall entrance hall, a stairwell or a walkway ceiling calls for a narrow build that passes through a front door or a communal door. The room scaffold is made for that: it goes through a standard interior door from around 70 centimetres and can be moved fully assembled. For more height you choose the narrow mobile scaffold at 75 centimetres wide.

A stairwell is the hardest spot, because the scaffold does not stand on one level. Part of the base frame sits on the landing and part above the stairs, and that calls for a build suited to it. Improvising with planks across the treads is not a solution; the guide on a mobile scaffold over a stairwell shows how it can be done.

Work in communal areas often comes with the building's own rules as well: about the hours you may work, about escape routes that have to stay clear and about covering floors. Check that with the manager before the scaffold is delivered, so you are not standing in the hall with parts and nowhere to go. A short email to the manager with your planning prevents most of the discussion afterwards.

Higher than 14 metres or the whole block at once

As soon as your work point rises above 14.2 metres, the mobile scaffold stops. The same applies if you tackle the whole block at once and want to reach tens of metres of facade in one go. A facade or system scaffold is then the logical choice, with a continuous deck along the facade and several working levels stacked above each other.

That type of scaffold is arranged including assembly and dismantling through our partner GoedkoopSteigerHuren.nl. The difference between the two solutions, and when each fits, is set out side by side in the guide on mobile scaffold or facade scaffold. It also covers what each means for lead time and for the space you take up on the street. For anything in between, look at the tallest sizes in the range.

For everything in between, the mobile scaffold usually stays more attractive. If you work on one apartment in the block, on one balcony or on a few window frames, a rolling build is set up faster and is more flexible than a fixed scaffold that has to stand for days. Also look at 10 metres working height, which already reaches far enough on many walk-up blocks.

Owners association, manager and resident agreements

For owners associations and property managers, shared facade maintenance is a recurring subject. It usually involves painting, pointing or window frames that are due, and the question of how to tackle that without wrapping the whole facade in scaffolding for weeks. A rolling build that shifts along apartment by apartment is often a practical answer. For an association it also helps that you can plan apartment by apartment instead of shutting down the whole block at once. When that maintenance is best scheduled is covered in the guide on when to carry out facade maintenance.

What you settle in advance decides how smoothly the job runs. Think of permission from the association, a place to unload and store parts, and informing residents about a scaffold beside their window. An agreement about the days on which work happens also prevents discussion afterwards. Finally, record who holds the key to the space where the parts are stored between working days.

• Permission from the association or manager for placement and anchoring
• An unloading and storage spot for the parts during the job
• Informing residents about a scaffold at their window or balcony
• Agreements about working days and working hours in the building
• Clarity on who secures the scaffold after working hours
• Keeping entrances, escape routes and bike stores clear

Delivery at an apartment, deposit and planning

The scaffold arrives in parts, and the driver needs a reachable spot to unload. At an apartment that is often a parking bay, a pavement or a courtyard. Order before 15:00 and delivery follows the next working day, anywhere in the Netherlands. The amounts per region are listed under delivery costs, and in Amsterdam you can also collect by appointment at Zeeburgerpad 89.

The hire consists of a full day rate for the first day and 5 percent of that rate for every following day. On facade maintenance running over several days that works in your favour: you leave the scaffold standing instead of having it delivered twice. The amounts are listed under the cost of a mobile scaffold. If the job overruns because of bad weather, you move the collection day without it costing much.

For the RS51 and RS52 the deposit on delivery is 500 euro, returned in full within one working day after the scaffold comes back complete and undamaged. The amounts for the other models are on the page about the deposit. You assemble the scaffold yourself with the supplied manual and the instruction video; we do not deliver it assembled and do not build it for you. You can always talk it through first through contact.