Painting a rear facade? Choose the right scaffold.

Round the back it is not the wall that sets the model but the route to it. That is why the Altrex RS TOWER 51 comes first here: at 75 cm wide it passes through almost any garden gate. You reach the back through that gate, along a path between shed and fence, or with every part carried down your own hallway. The narrowest point on the way decides what can stand there at all, so hiring a mobile scaffold for the back starts with a tape measure in the gateway.

On the deck you barely notice the narrow width. Painting asks for a tin, a brush, a roller and a sanding block within arm's reach, and all of that sits happily beside your feet on 245 cm of platform length. That length is what does the work here: along a rear facade you slide from window to window and finish a whole strip without climbing down. Extra width mainly means extra parts to carry through the gate, and you feel that at every bend and every threshold.

Choose the wide RS52 at 135 cm instead and you need a double gate in the fence or a drive that runs right into the garden. With that room the broader deck is pleasant for a lot of joinery or for two painters side by side, and both sit in the same selection of mobile scaffolds you can hire. The RS44 room scaffold slips through an interior door from about 70 cm but reaches only 3 to 4 metres, so it stays indoors.

The highest point at the back is usually the roof edge, or the top of the gable on a pitched roof. For two storeys that means a reach of 6 to 8 metres working height, with your platform at 4 to 6 metres, because above that platform you still have roughly 2 metres of reach with a stretched arm. If you are taking in a dormer in the rear roof slope, measure to the top of that and not to the gutter, since it easily costs a whole storey in the build you hire.

Start measuring at the level where the wheels will actually rest, because at the back that is seldom flush with the pavement. A garden half a metre below street level hands you exactly that extra half metre to bridge. If the patio falls away towards the fence, take the lowest wheel point. Standing on grass with levelling plates underneath, count their thickness as well. Which reach matches which build appears on the page for eight metres of working height.

Choosing tight is punished twice round the back. Half a metre short at the roof edge means painting with stretched arms, an uneven coat and a result you look at from the patio every day. Adding something on the spot is not an option either, because the room is not there and the ground is too soft for a loose step. Caught between two builds, hire the taller one. How much a storey adds in metres is set out at the height of a first floor.

Behind a house the ground is rarely as flat as it looks. Grass gives the moment rain has fallen, old patio slabs sit loose and gravel shifts under a loaded wheel. Slide levelling plates, thick boards or spare slabs underneath and check with a spirit level before the second lift goes on. Walk round again after the first night, because a garden that has turned wet lets a wheel drop a centimetre. What to do with a difference in level is explained in the piece on uneven ground.

Around the base you need more room than the tower itself takes up, because the four stabilisers point outwards at an angle. In a back garden they land on exactly what belongs there: the water butt, a canopy, the outside tap, planters against the brickwork and the crawl space hatch. Clear that strip before delivery, because shifting things halfway costs you an hour. An extension or a low kitchen wing pushes you further from the wall you are painting, and you feel that in your reach immediately.

The boundary at the back often sits two metres from the wall, so your setup almost certainly touches the neighbours. Tell them when the scaffold arrives and how long it stays, especially when stabilisers reach over the fence or you need their paving to move along. Decide too where the stack of parts lands: not on the grass you have to push the tower across, and not in front of the shed door where your tools are. Half a metre of slack along the fence makes every move calmer.

A rear facade is almost never finished in a day. First wiping down and sanding, then repairing rot and sealant lines, then priming and two topcoats, all of it over the full height per setup. For two storeys with four to six window frames you are realistically looking at four to six rental days, spread over three or four positions. Working alone, add a day: moving and levelling again takes longer in a garden than on the street, where you simply roll the tower along.

There are hours in there when all you can do is wait. Before a second coat goes on the first has to harden, and the product sets that pace, not your diary. Then there is the aspect: a north facing rear facade stays damp, dew lifts late in the morning and the fence holds the shade. So do not plan your rental period around the day you could be finished, but around the day it is certainly done, with a morning of clearing up behind it.

Booking generously costs little. The full rate covers the first 24 hours only, and each day after that is 95% off, so one spare day for wet mornings barely shows in the total. It gets expensive only when you book too tight and have to hand the tower back halfway through the second coat. Put your end date a notch behind your last painting day. How to estimate such a period is covered in the guide to rental days.

Per setup those 245 cm of platform cover a good two metres of wall. Finish that strip completely before you shift: first the top edge and the fascia board, then the brick or render, then the window frame within reach. Nothing needs a second visit and your joins stay on one vertical line. Put that line where it disappears, on a corner, behind a downpipe or along the side of a frame. At the back that is usually the corner by the extension or the seam beside the kitchen door.

Before you roll, clear the deck. Tins, brushes and abrasive paper go down first, because a mobile scaffold must never move with materials or a person on it. In a garden there is extra work: levelling plates come along, wheels run heavy over grass, and getting over a patio edge usually needs a second pair of hands. Allow half an hour for each move and plan it for a moment when the paint has to dry anyway, so you lose no working time.

How many positions you need almost always disappoints. Eight metres of rear facade already asks three to four per coat, and an extension or kitchen door adds another because you cannot get flat against it. Doing the window frames at the back in the same visit adds pauses for masking and drying. Every extra position stretches your rental period, and that is exactly the sum behind your delivery date and your collection date, so count the positions out before you fix a period.

What comes to you is a complete set of loose parts, counted. The van stops at the road, so the stretch to the back is your job: frames, platforms, braces and guardrails go through the gate or down the hallway one at a time. Decide beforehand where that stack lands, ideally within a few metres of the build spot. A booking placed before 15:00 on a working day arrives the working day after, and that certainty helps you fix your first painting day.

You put the delivery day and the collection day in the diary yourself. For a rear facade the day before your first coat is usually easiest, so the build can happen calmly. Building is your task, with the supplied manual and the video beside you. Round the back it pays to lay the parts out in build order, because walking around a stack does not happen in a narrow garden. The step by step build guide follows exactly that order.

We collect, you dismantle. Put the parts complete at the roadside, because carrying them back through the gate takes as long as the way in, so keep half a day free again. Wait until the paint is dry, or you press wet gloss against the tubes. Count the parts as you take it apart and collection day holds no surprises. What delivery and collection cost in your province is on the page with delivery charges per province.

The deck you stand on is rated for 200 kg per square metre, the limit that belongs to load class 3 in scaffold standard EN 1004. For painting that sounds generous, until two people are up there with a bucket of water, a tin of primer and a toolbox beside them. Add it up before everything goes up at once, and spread it across the floor rather than stacking it against one guardrail. There is more in the explanation of this standard.

The fixed rules apply just as hard round the back. Brake the wheels the moment you take the first rung and never move the tower with anyone or anything on the deck. Stop when it starts to blow hard, and do not underestimate that wind because a garden feels sheltered, since above the ridge and along an open rear boundary there is still a fair flow. Check all four stabilisers again after every move and set them down firmly before anyone climbs.

The risks on this job sit mostly below. A garden is where children, dogs and visitors walk underneath you, and a brush falling 6 metres lands hard. Fence that zone off with a few garden chairs or a length of tape. Watch for slippery slabs early in the morning and moss along a north facing patio, because a wheel slides away there. Sweep the carrying route before the first parts go round the back. The rest is in working safely at height.