Installing a lightning conductor? Choose the right scaffold.

At this height you hire the RS52 wide mobile scaffold from Altrex, 135 cm across and good for up to 14.2 metres of working height. The width is no luxury here. The taller the build, the more a narrow tower begins to act as a lever, and on a lightning conductor you are soon standing at ten metres with material around you. You book online by model and by height, with fixed prices that include VAT. The versions in this format appear in the range of mobile scaffolds for hire, with their build heights.

More goes up with you on this installation than on most jobs. A coil of copper or aluminium tape has weight, and besides that you need clips, plugs, clamps, a drill and a level. On a deck of 135 by 245 cm you can put all that down without stepping over it constantly, and a second person can stand beside you holding the tape taut while you fix the clip. On a narrow deck that does not work.

The narrow RS51 at 75 cm is an option if you work alone and the way to the facade is tight, in an alley beside a mid terrace for example. What you give up is working room at exactly the moment both hands are busy with a run of tape and a drill has to fit in as well. What a build at this height means in weight and loading is covered under loading and weight of a mobile scaffold.

The highest point on this job is the connection up top, where the tape fastens to the air terminal or to the roof edge trim. On a house of two storeys that sits around eight metres; with three storeys and a pitched roof it runs to eleven or twelve. So count on a working height of 8 to 12 metres. Your deck then comes to 6 to 10 metres, since the last two metres you bridge with your own reach from the boards you stand on.

Measure from ground level and not from a terrace or a raised entrance, because on a lightning conductor the tape ends at the ground. Where the garden sits half a metre below the pavement, that half metre counts in your build and therefore in what you hire. Check as well whether an overhang or a gutter projects in front of the roof edge, since you have to work around it. The build for that size is shown at a working height of 12 metres.

Hiring too low on this job means you cannot make the top connection properly. That is precisely the joint you want to finish with both hands and with a clear view, and that will not happen with your arms above your head. You would also have to add another build level afterwards, which at ten metres is half a day of work. For a three storey elevation, look at the height up to the third floor.

On a lightning conductor the tape drops straight down the facade and disappears into the ground at the earth electrode. That is exactly where you want no scaffold leg and no stabiliser. So stand the tower half a metre to the side of that line, letting you reach the lowest clips, the test clamp and the connection point without shifting the whole build. Mark that spot on the paving before the parts are delivered, and you know from the start where the base must not land.

The ground matters more at this height than on low work. A tower of ten metres puts heavy pressure on four small areas, so you want flat block paving, a drive or solid slabs, and on garden soil you put base plates down before anything goes up. A step between pavement and front garden you take out with the spindles of the tower, not with a stack of offcuts under a wheel. Keeping a tall build steady is covered under stabilising and tying in.

Look as well at what sits along that vertical line. A downpipe on the same corner, an outside tap, a meter cabinet, ivy or a canopy above the door all stand right where your tape has to go. Take away what can be removed and decide for the rest whether you route the tape around it or move the tower a little. Mind the pavement too: if your build stands on public ground, ask the council beforehand.

Start your planning at the build itself. Getting a tower up to ten or twelve metres is half a day of work with two people, and taking it down costs nearly as much. Then follows the fitting: the connection above, the clips that hold the tape off the facade, and below the test clamp and the earth connection. For a lightning conductor on a house you land on two to three hire days, and that is reckoned without setbacks or a second down conductor.

There is also weather in your schedule that you do not steer. At ten metres you do not work in a stiff breeze, and that is precisely the height where wind arrives sooner than down at the wall. A wet facade or a slippery roof edge is reason enough to postpone a morning. So book a day of slack into your period and you need force nothing at the first shower or the first gust.

That costs you little, because the rental price sits mostly at the start. Over the first twenty four hours you pay the full rate and on each hire day after that 95 per cent comes off the price. An extra day is therefore barely noticeable, while hiring too tight means stopping halfway down the tape. Set your end date a day further out than you hope to need. What is realistic you can read at estimating your hire days.

On most jobs you wheel a tower sideways; here you sink with it. The tape follows a vertical line, so you work from the connection at the top downwards and take off roughly two metres of tape with its clips per build level. Once a section is finished you remove a deck level and carry on at the height below. The platform of 245 cm serves mainly to keep your material within reach while you do it.

Take up per level everything the section needs: the tape on its coil, the clips for that stretch, plugs, a drill with the right bit and a level or plumb line to hold the run straight. Never climb with a coil of tape over your arm; haul it up with a rope and a bucket once you are standing on the deck yourself. That way both hands stay free for the rungs on the way up.

Do not underestimate the number of levels. At twelve metres you work through some five build heights, and that means five climbs, five moves of material and five sections of dismantling. Finish each section completely before you drop down, because having to go back up for one forgotten clip costs you half an hour here, plus the concentration you had built up. If you are also fitting an aerial in the same week, schedule that at the top.

A build up to twelve metres arrives as a substantial, complete and counted set of loose parts. Decide beforehand where that stack may lie, since it is bulkier than people expect and you need the band along the facade yourself. Put the pieces on the drive or on the far side of the path, and in any case not on the spot where your earthing point is. Place your order on a weekday and stay under the 15:00 mark, and the set comes the next working day.

The day of bringing and the day of fetching are for you to fix, and on this job you keep an eye on the forecast while you do. Plan the drop off a day before your first fitting day, so the build does not have to compete with the installation for the same hours. Putting it up is your task, with the booklet and the instruction film to hand, and at this height you tackle it with two people. The step plan for the build gives the order.

Once the lightning conductor is in place and the tape is connected below, we come and take the parts away again. You dismantle the tower and lay the pieces out in full somewhere the van can stop. Count as you take it down, because on a tall build a brace or a coupler goes missing among the shrubs easily enough. What bringing and fetching costs depends on your province and is listed with the rates per province.

You stand on a deck built to EN 1004, in load class 3, which here means 200 kg of bearing capacity per square metre. On a lightning conductor you fill that quicker than you think: two people, a coil of tape, a box of clips and tools soon add up together. Spread the weight over the deck and leave part of your material on the ground until you genuinely need it. What you are not using does not have to come up with you.

At this height the basic rules are no formality. The stabilisers always go on, the wheels are braked the moment anyone climbs, and moving happens only with an empty deck. Wind is the deciding factor here: at ten metres you feel a gust that hardly registers below, so stop when it blows hard and rather wait half a day. Walk the braces and couplers after every change to the build, even if you only removed one deck level.

What can genuinely go wrong on this job nearly always involves falling. A length of tape, a clip or a drill dropping from twelve metres is lethal, so fence off the zone underneath and keep passers by well away from the base. Leave the connecting and the final inspection to someone trained for that work as well; you hire the tower to get at the work safely. The wider rules are set out at work at height and the regulations.