Cleaning fascia boards? Choose the right scaffold.

Take the RS52, the wide mobile scaffold with a deck width of 135 cm. The reason here is thoroughly practical: on wet work all sorts of things stand on your deck that you do not want to kick over. A bucket of suds, a second bucket of clean water, a bottle of cleaner, two brushes with different handles and a cloth. On a narrow deck you shuffle that about all day. The widths are at the mobile scaffolds you can hire.

Work with a low pressure washer or a garden hose and a hose joins all that, running up from below. It has to go somewhere without lying between your feet or snagging behind a rail post when you pull it towards you. That argues for the wider deck as well. Lay the hose down over the rail in a generous curve, so there is slack in it and it does not pull tight against an upright.

A tower 75 cm wide only comes into the picture where the wide version will not pass a gate, an alley or a narrow garden path. So measure that tightest opening before you commit, and mind a low canopy on the way as well. Room scaffolds are out anyway: they are meant for indoors, up to about four metres, not for a dripping roof edge ten metres up. Between two models, compare the size overview.

On this job the highest point sits above the gutter: the fascia board usually passes behind it up to the roof trim, and it is on that top edge that the thickest layer of green growth sits. You have to get your brush over it, not just up against it. With two or three storeys under it, you land on eight to twelve metres of working height. Add close to two metres of reach to your deck height and you know which build to order.

The zero point of your measurement lies under the wheels, not on the doorstep. That often makes more difference than people think, because a drive falls away to the road and at the back the terrace sometimes sits a step higher. Working round the house, write down a figure per side and book on the largest of them, because dropping a build down is quickly done. What a roof edge at this height involves you see at work on the second floor.

A build that is too low goes wrong in its own way on this work. Stand under the edge and you brush upwards, and all the dirty water runs down your brush into your sleeve. You also cannot see the top and leave exactly the spot where the moss holds on. So choose a build that puts the edge at eye level or just under it. On the page about working height you find per height how much build belongs to it.

This is where this job differs from every other one at the roof edge. Everything you rinse down ends up in the strip your position stands on. Brick paving and slabs cope with that perfectly well. Grass, half made up ground, a gravel path with sand under it and a border certainly do not: within an hour they go so soft that a wheel or a stabiliser sinks slowly while you scrub ten metres higher and notice nothing at all.

So put the tower on paving by preference, and where that is impossible, lay a firm board under every wheel and under every stabiliser to spread the load. Walk round the position every hour, because settling is gradual and you only notice it when you start standing out of true up top. Look too at where the water finally runs: a gully or a drain nearby saves you a puddle under your own feet. More at working on an uneven surface.

Think further about what stands in the splash zone. Windows, frames, a shed door, a parked car, the neighbours' washing and garden furniture all catch dirty water once you start brushing. Move those things away or cover them before the position is built, because once the tower stands you no longer get between them easily. Warn the neighbours where you share a boundary, since dirty water going over a fence lands on their terrace just as hard as on yours.

Cleaning goes faster than painting, but not as fast as it sounds. Per position, soaping, letting it work, brushing and rinsing off take half an hour to an hour together, and with a good two metres of roof edge at a time that adds up to a full day on a terraced house. Where the fascia board runs round the whole house, reckon on two days of hire. Thick moss or a black film brings a second round with it.

More important than the cleaning time is what comes after it. If you want to treat the timber afterwards, it first has to dry back completely, and with solid fascia board timber that takes longer than an afternoon. Plan that drying time inside the same rental period instead of taking the tower down and building it again later. Cleaning and treating in one unbroken booking saves you a second delivery, a second building day and measuring out all your positions again.

The way the rate is built up helps with that. After the first 24 hours, 95% comes off the day rate for every extra rental day, so taking a few drying days along costs little next to starting over. Put your collection date behind the drying period and not right after your last bucket of suds. If things go differently you simply hand the tower back early. More on that trade off is at judging the number of rental days.

A deck of 245 cm gives you about two and a half metres of roof edge per position, and within that stretch you always work from high to low. The top edge against the roof trim comes first, then the face, and only last whatever sits below it and at the ends. Reverse that order and the dirt from above washes over timber that was just clean, and you start again. Rinse each piece before the product can dry on.

Take everything up in one go: two buckets, your brushes, the product and a cloth. On wet work climbing down to fetch something is extra unpleasant, because you stand on the rungs with wet hands and wet soles. Do not work further than you can comfortably reach, either. The temptation to take that last half metre by hanging over the rail is strong at a roof edge, and that is exactly where it goes wrong.

You move with an empty, swept deck. Tip the buckets out, set them below, wipe the platform, release the brakes and wheel to the next stretch. Do not take a full bucket along while wheeling, because water sloshes and shifts weight at the moment the stabilisers are folded in and the tower stands least forgiving. Hoisting a bucket up costs less time than straightening a position. If a coat of stain follows on the timber, see staining fascia boards.

The tower arrives as a counted stack of loose parts, and on wet work you do not want that stack lying in the mud. Point out a place on paving or under a canopy beforehand, because tubes that spend days in a wet border become heavy and slippery to handle. An order that comes in on a working day ahead of 15:00 is loaded for the following working day. A couple of battens under the stack keeps it clear of standing water.

You fill in yourself when the parts arrive and when they may go again. Look at the forecast while you do, but differently from painting: for cleaning it need not be bone dry, you only do not want to build in pouring rain. So set the delivery a day before your cleaning day. Standing it up is your job, with the instruction from the box and the film that demonstrates the order. We do not come to build, nor do we deliver a standing tower.

As soon as the timber is clean and dry again, we come to take the parts away. Break the mobile scaffold down, wipe the platforms clean and lay the parts together at a point reachable from the road, so not behind a shut gate. Count the parts as you dismantle, because a clamp that ends up among wet cloths only turns up once the van has gone. The amounts per province are at what delivery costs.

Under your feet lies a deck classed within EN 1004 as load class 3, which allows 200 kg on each square metre. That sounds like a lot, but on wet work it mounts up: two buckets of water already weigh a fair amount together, and with two of you up there a second person with his own kit joins them. So spread the weight over the platform and do not put everything in one corner. More at weight and loading on a mobile scaffold.

The real risk of this job is the deck itself. Water with green growth and soap in it makes a platform treacherous, and you find that out only when you take a step backwards. So wipe your deck every time you move, wear shoes with a coarse tread and set your buckets down so that you need not step around them. Never climb up with a bucket in your hand; hoist it up separately instead.

Beyond that the standing rules apply, and on wet work they are no formality. Brake the wheels before you climb on, move the tower only when empty, and stop as soon as it begins to blow, because wet hands and wind go badly together. Never aim a low pressure washer at yourself or at the rail: the recoil pushes you backwards. Keep the ground under the mobile scaffold clear of people and pets, because a falling bucket gathers real speed.