Repairing a gutter? Choose the right scaffold.

The usual model for this work is the RS51, at Altrex the RS TOWER 51. It measures 75 cm across and comes in builds between 4.2 and 14.2 metres of working height. On a repair that slim measurement counts for a different reason than on painting: you will not wheel it far, but you do have to fit it into one specific spot, and that is often a corner between a shed and the boundary. The full range sits on the page about mobile scaffolds available for hire.

What you need up top is not room to walk but room to put things down. A deck of 245 cm holds a tool box, a roll of repair tape, a cloth and a bucket for the muck that comes out of the channel. That way you need not climb down during the work, and that is exactly where a repair stalls: every trip down for a pair of pliers or a screw costs you a quarter of an hour.

Working in a pair with heavier material going up, say a replacement length of gutter lining or a complete set of brackets, the wider RS52 at 135 cm is pleasanter. For a single seam or one loosened bracket that is overkill. If the leak lies in the gutter of an extension about four metres up, the compact one person MiTower often does, reaching 6.2 metres of working height and going up quite easily on your own.

On this job the highest point is not the roof edge but the gutter bottom where the leak sits, and you want to see over it without stretching. The rule of thumb stays simple: the deck you stand on plus about 2 metres for what your arms cover gives the working height that goes on the booking. With the channel at five to six metres you are right with six to eight. Which build belongs to that you can check through the overview of working heights.

Find out where the leak actually is before you pick a height. A trickle mark on the wall rarely starts where the water leaves the channel, so walk the wall on a dry day and look for lime streaks and green growth. If the leak sits at the changeover to the downpipe you work lower than at a seam halfway along. Take your measurement from the ground the wheels end up on, not from the terrace beside it.

Going too tight ends worse on repair work than on other maintenance. Applying sealant or solder with your arms above your head gives a seam that does not lie down tightly, and you cannot see whether the material really closes everywhere. You also cannot dry the channel properly, and that is precisely what decides whether the repair holds. If the gutter sits above a second floor, the build simply goes a few decks higher than usual.

On targeted work the leak decides the standing place, not convenience. Quite often that means the scaffold cannot go on the smooth terrace but has to sit in the border, on a gravel strip or half against a shed. Look at that beforehand and prepare the spot: tie plants back, lay slabs, take loose things away. You need the width of the tower plus the space in which the four stabilisers splay outwards, and it is that last part people forget most.

A mobile scaffold belongs on the ground, not on the flat roof of an extension or on a shed roof. If the leaking piece sits above such an addition, put the tower beside it at ground level and choose a higher build, so you come over the roof edge to the channel. Where the garden slopes there, level the base before you build on. More about that situation is in the notes on stabilising and anchoring.

Think as well about what happens below you. On a repair, water, old sealant and sometimes a piece of zinc come down, so you do not want bikes, a glass garden table or the neighbour's car parked there. If the only suitable place is on the street side, see whether you can keep a walking route free and give the neighbours a word, because a tower right in front of the door is noticed and stays for a few days.

The repair itself is often done in a couple of hours. What fills the day is the building, tracking down the real leak and getting the piece of channel you will work on dry and clean. So reckon on half a day building and half a day working, and bear in mind you nearly always find more than you saw from the ground: a second hairline crack, a bracket that also gives, a seam rusted through underneath. Each of those turns half an hour of work into a whole afternoon.

Then there is waiting time in the material. Sealant, repair mastic and adhesive want dry weather and time to cure, and that time stands on the packaging of whatever you use. A gutter you close today you also want to check tomorrow in the rain, and that only works if the tower is still standing then. Two rental days are therefore more practical than one, even though the work itself is finished in a morning and the scaffold stands idle the rest of the time.

Financially you need not think long about it. Over the first 24 hours you pay the whole rate, and if the tower then stays a day longer, 95% off leaves little of that. So that checking day costs you next to nothing against the first, while it gives you the certainty that the leak has really gone. How such a short period compares with a whole week you see at the comparison by day and by week.

Because you stay in one position, everything you need goes up in one trip. Run through that list before you climb: abrasive paper or a wire brush, degreaser, cloths, sealant or soldering kit, pliers, screws and the replacement bracket. Forget something and you climb up and down through a hatch, and that is exactly the moment people take risks. A bucket for the debris belongs on the list too, because you start by emptying the channel.

With a deck length of 245 cm you can still reach a stretch of channel either side of the leak, and that is usually enough. If the crack proves to run on, or two brackets are loose, you move once and carry on. Get the gutter dry and clean before you start: sealant does not bond to silt, and zinc you intend to solder must be bright and free of grease. That preparation decides how long the repair lasts. A torch helps, because a channel is darker inside than it looks.

Where people miscalculate is how often a small leak turns into a bigger story. A bracket pulled loose nearly always means the timber of the roof edge has gone soft. Repairing stays work at one point; if the whole length is rusted through it becomes replacing the gutter and you hire longer and often wider. If it stays with that one spot, see whether you can also renew the gutter brackets now the tower is up anyway.

A leak rarely announces itself at a convenient moment. It works in your favour, then, that the latest ordering time is 15:00 on a working day: what is booked before that stands at your door the next working day. Spot a wet patch on the ceiling on Monday morning and you can be building on Tuesday. The tower comes as loose parts in a complete, counted set, so pick out somewhere dry beforehand for that stack to lie.

Building is your part: with the supplied manual and the instruction film you put it up yourself. We do not come and assemble and we deliver nothing ready built; on a repair that is no problem, since two people set one position up in a couple of hours. In a hurry you may also fetch the set yourself. That is free by appointment, at Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam, provided your transport takes the parts. What delivery in your province comes to is at the rates per province.

Afterwards you dismantle the tower and set all the parts together; we drive by to pick them up. Choose that collection day deliberately one day after your repair, so you can still see at the next shower whether the gutter stays dry. If you then spot a drip after all, you are back at the right height within ten minutes, instead of having to hire, arrange delivery and build all over again in a fortnight.

The deck under your feet is an EN 1004 platform in load class 3, good for 200 kg on every square metre. On a repair you rarely approach that, but do count what you take along: a tool box, a gas canister, a piece of zinc and a second person watching add up faster than you would think. Put heavy items down by the uprights rather than in the middle of the deck, and take back down whatever you do not use.

The standard rules apply here too. Wheels on the brake before you go up, nobody and nothing on the scaffold while it is moved, and off it in a strong wind. Repairs do tend to happen in the storm season, so look at the forecast for that afternoon before you begin. Check as well that all four stabilisers really bear. On a soft border one of them sinks a few centimetres just as you are up there working with both hands.

What asks extra attention on this job is fire and falling tools. Working a torch on zinc, keep a bucket of water at hand, stay clear of dry leaves in the channel and of timber fascia. Do not leave pliers or a screwdriver lying on the edge of the deck, because everything there comes down sooner or later. Warn anyone standing below before you drop a length of old material. The rules that apply further are at safe working at height.