Painting a carport? Choose the right scaffold.

To paint a carport you hire the MiTower: 75 cm across, intended for one person, with a reach of 4.2 to 6.2 metres of working height. What makes it usable here is not the height but the flexibility. Outside you extend it until the roof edge is within reach, and afterwards you set it up inside the carport in its lowest configuration to deal with the boarding overhead. Every version is listed on the page about MiTower hire.

The width of 75 cm counts double under a canopy. Posts there often stand two and a half to three metres apart, and on top of that there is a car, a trailer or a stack of firewood. A slim build rolls between two uprights without you first having to empty out half the carport. A wide one simply will not pass through, and lifting is no option at all once a tower is assembled. Wheeling it along is fine, provided the floor is level.

Where this model meets its limit is company and materials. One decorator belongs on it, with a tin of paint and a roller. If two of you are working, or a primer, an undercoat and a topcoat all have to be up at once, hire a mobile scaffold of the wider kind with a platform of 245 cm. For a single carport that is rarely necessary. The dimensions of both are set against each other in this comparison of the two models.

The outside decides which working height you reserve. The highest point is the top edge of the roof, and on a carport attached to the house that edge carries on to somewhere between three and four metres. To reach it comfortably and to see over it you pick 4 to 6 metres of working height. Book too low and you miss exactly the top band where the water runs down. The page on 4 metres of working height shows what that build looks like.

Working height does not mean your platform sits at that figure. With a floor at two metres you reach roughly four, because your arms and shoulders carry on about two metres above it. That sum is the number you book with. Measure from the paving the wheels will stand on: where a carport meets a raised terrace, that differs half a metre from ground level. You only notice half a metre when you start on the last beam of all.

Inside the carport the same figure works the other way round. The clear height under the boarding is often no more than two and a half metres, so you cannot stand on a floor at two; your head would be against the deck. Under the canopy you therefore build the tower low and work with your arms up above your head. That is the difference people tend to overlook when they are hiring a scaffold for a job like this one.

This job has two standing places. Outside you put the tower on the drive or the path beside the carport, with all four stabilisers spread to their full width. Inside you wheel it between the posts and set it in its lowest position, keeping the stabilisers shorter because an upright would otherwise be in the way. Walk both set-ups through before you open a tin, and you know where it pinches. That costs ten minutes.

The ground under a carport is usually the best on the whole plot: block paving or concrete, level and dry. Outside is where you pay attention, because the drive often falls towards the street and a grass edge gives way under a wheel. Put the build on the hard part rather than half on the edge, and use a board to take up a difference in level. There is more on that in the guidance on working indoors with a mobile scaffold.

Empty the carport completely before you begin. Car, trailer, bikes, garden furniture and the bin all have to come out, because opaque paint spatters and drips the moment you are rolling above your head. Lay sheeting over the floor where you stand and slide it along at every move. Do not forget the downpipe and the outside tap either: a stabiliser catches those sooner than you would expect. An empty carport also works twice as fast as a full one.

Three coats set the planning here. Bare or weathered timber gets a primer first, then two opaque coats follow, and between each layer sits the interval the tin prescribes. Allow a day of work per coat on an average carport: the frame, the beams, the roof edge and the boarding underneath add up to more square metres than the eye suggests. On top of that comes the day you sand, degrease and mask, and that is a full working day of its own.

Five to six hire days is therefore normal for this job. Anyone who thinks a weekend will do it forgets that an opaque layer can only be overcoated once it is hard right through, and under a canopy that takes longer than in the sun because hardly any air moves past. If you are working in two colours, a dark frame and a white roof edge for instance, add half a day for the masking alone.

That long period sounds expensive, but the tariff does not work that way. The full amount covers the first day and night; from the second day onwards every further hire day comes with 95 per cent off. Booking a week for three coats is therefore barely dearer than three days, and you never have to rush a layer that is not hard yet. So set your collection date well behind the final coat. What else to tick off is on the checklist for hiring.

Under the canopy you work with your head close to the job. Set the platform low enough that you can still stand upright with half a metre of clearance above you, and finish the boarding in bands from top to bottom. You are rolling or brushing against gravity, so put it on thin; an overloaded roller leaves a curtain of runs straight away that you will not smooth out again. Two thin bands beat one heavy one you have to repair.

Per position you take the bay between two posts and the strip of boarding above it. On an average carport that is about two and a half metres, so a single carport comes to three or four positions inside and another four along the outside. Multiply that by three coats and you see why your hire period counts in days rather than hours. Always finish a whole bay before you move the tower. Stopping halfway leaves a visible join.

Take up only what that bay needs on each trip: a tin, a roller or brush, a cloth and tape. Under a roof there is nowhere to put anything down, because everything you rest on the boarding comes back down sooner or later. If stain work on a timber carport follows on later, keep those materials strictly apart. A bucket hook on the guard rail solves most of it, on a low platform as much as a high one.

What the hire gets you is not a ready made tower but a counted set of parts you put together yourself. On this job that is handy, because you build it twice: high for the outside first, low for underneath the roof later. So do not drop the loose parts on the spot where the first set-up has to stand. Anything booked on a working day before 15:00 travels to you the day after. That saves a week of waiting when the weather is with you.

Delivery date and collection date are yours to choose, and for paintwork you have it delivered the day before your first coat goes on. Assembly is your task; the manual comes with it and a video runs through the order of frames and braces, and with two people the build stands inside an hour. Do that on the day you are sanding and masking anyway, and you lose nothing. The page on painting a facade shows which build suits that work.

When you have finished we collect the set again, on the date in your booking. Only strike it once the last coat is hard, because paint that still tacks leaves prints on the tubes and on your hands. Stack the dismantled parts in one spot that the van can pull up alongside without blocking the street. The fixed amounts per province for bringing and fetching are listed under the costs of delivery. Count that amount in when you budget the job.

What you hire is built to EN 1004 and falls in load class 3: every square metre of platform may carry 200 kg. For painting that is generous, even with a couple of tins beside your feet. What matters more is that the model is rated for a single user, so let the second decorator work outside or pass things up instead of climbing with you. Two on one floor is not an option here. What the class covers is described in the explanation of this scaffold standard.

The ordinary rules do not change. Lock the wheels before you step on, never move it with tools or a person aboard, and come down when it blows. On the outside of a carport wind plays an extra part, because you are working along a long edge with a wet roller at eye level and spray carries further than you think. Under the roof you are free of that, but you are wedged between post and boarding instead.

The particular risk of this job is your head. Working under a low roof you knock into a purlin or a nail point at every upward move, and with a tin in your hand that is the moment your balance goes. Wear a cap or a helmet, keep one hand free and hang the tin in a hook. A clean, dry floor underfoot belongs in the same list. There is more in the piece on fall protection.