Replacing gutter brackets? Choose the right scaffold.

For replacing gutter brackets you hire the Altrex RS51, the narrow mobile scaffold at 75 cm wide with a reach of 4.2 to 14.2 metres. That 75 cm is the measurement that counts here, because the fixings sit spread across the elevation and you shift past a path, a border or a shed standing a little too close to the wall. Other widths sit alongside it in the range, and the quickest way to compare them is the page where you hire a mobile scaffold.

On the deck this job asks for little room, but it does ask for the right room. A bucket of new brackets and screws goes up, a cordless drill, and a length of timber to prop the trough the moment a fixing comes loose. All of that fits along the edge of a platform of 245 cm, and as long as two of you are not walking over it at once, you can pass along behind each other without stepping over the tools.

If you are taking on the fascia board at the same time, or two of you will be working up there together, the wider RS52 is worth a thought. For bracket work alone the narrow build wins, and the reason is the shifting: you move it six to ten times on this job, and every time it clears an obstacle without a fuss you save minutes. A wide scaffold to hire mostly means more parts to carry on the day you build it.

The highest point of this job is the underside of the gutter, and that is what you measure to. With the trough at four to six metres you land on 6 to 8 metres of working height. Your deck then hangs at four to six metres, because above the platform height you still reach roughly two metres further yourself. Which build goes with that, and what the steps in between are, is set out on the page about eight metres of reach.

Unlike work on the trough itself, here you do not want your waist level with the gutter. The bracket sits under it and you drive the screws from below, so you are after a deck where the gutter edge comes out at around shoulder height. Pick a level too high and you look down onto the trough and cannot get the drill under the rim. A level too low means driving screws with your arms straight up, and over twelve fixings you will not keep that up.

Take the paving the castors will rest on as your zero, and not the back door step. If the garden falls away towards the boundary or there is a sunken terrace under the gutter, your build starts lower than you think and you hire a level higher. Come up a few centimetres short and you are on tiptoe at every fixing, which you will feel in your shoulders by the third bracket. When in doubt, take the roomier level when you hire.

This job does not ask for a spot but for a runway. You start at the outlet and work the elevation, so check beforehand whether the strip under the gutter is flat and clear over its length. Paving and a made up driveway are ideal, grass that gives way under the castors after a shower is not. A border with a hosepipe across it, a raised bed of soil or a drain cover in the wrong place forces you to dismantle halfway and build again.

At the bottom the four stabilisers stand out at an angle, and they need more room on every side than the mobile scaffold is wide. That holds for each new position. Walk the line once with a tape and take away what can go: a water butt, planters, a bike rack, the wheelie bin. What stays, such as a rear extension or a low outbuilding, decides where the run has to be broken. For ground that falls away, the approach is in the guidance on uneven ground.

Look at what hangs above you as well while you work under the gutter. A telephone cable, a satellite dish or a low branch sits at exactly the height where you want your guard rail. If the wall faces the street, keep a footway clear and tell the council if part of the build lands on the pavement. That kind of permission you ask for well before you book, and not on the morning the van with the parts turns into your street.

Undoing and replacing one bracket takes little time, but there are a lot of them. An elevation of eight metres soon has twelve, and at every point you lift the trough, drill a pilot hole, fix the new iron at the old height and check that the water still runs the right way. Add the shifting along and the setting out of the stabilisers again, and an average terraced house takes two days, with a third if the gutter carries on round the corner.

There is little waiting in this job, but there are surprises. If the timber behind the gutter is soft it has to be made good before a new bracket has anything to grip, and that is half a day you had not planned for. Rain gets in the way too, since with wet hands and a slippery trough you cannot lift anything safely. So book from the day the work is certainly finished, with another day behind it for poor timber or a shower at the wrong moment.

Booking generously costs almost nothing here. That opening twenty four hours carries the full rate on its own, while every further day you tack on is discounted by 95 per cent, so a spare day weighs almost nothing. Having to hire again because you did not get the last three fixings done weighs heavily, because you pay for the journey a second time and put the whole build up again for nothing. Count your days with this explanation of hire days beside you.

From a platform of 245 cm you reach three to four fixing points without stretching. Work them all before you climb down, including the one that still looks sound, because a half finished stretch means standing in that spot again later. Take them in order and never let two neighbouring brackets go at the same moment, or the trough sags under its own weight and you pull the joints open on both sides of it.

You prop it with a strut or a strap hung from the guard rail, or with someone holding the trough while you drive the screws. Take everything up in one go: new brackets, screws, the drill, a spirit level and a short batten to carry the height across from the point next door. Every forgotten screw is one trip down and back up, and over twelve fixings that adds up to half an hour of climbing a day.

Moving happens only after you have cleared the deck. Put the drill and the bucket down below, release the brakes, wheel the mobile scaffold one platform length along and lock it again before anything goes up. Most people underestimate how often that happens: allow six to ten positions, and on an end of terrace the side wall comes on top of that. If you go on to paint the gutter afterwards, you drive that same route once more.

What turns up on your doorstep is a counted set of loose scaffold parts, nothing assembled. Decide ahead of the delivery day which corner that stack can occupy, because the run under the gutter has to stay clear for wheeling. A bay of the driveway or the strip of front garden beside the hedge suits it better than the path you are shifting along. Get the order in by 15:00 on any working day and the whole package reaches your door the next working day, on a date you pick.

Putting it together is your part of this job, with the supplied manual and the instruction video beside you. Two people are busy with it for half a day, so let the parts arrive a full day before your first bracket goes in. That gives you time to level it, set out the stabilisers and check that the deck really does come out at the right height under the gutter edge. The rate for your province is listed with the charges for dropping off and collecting.

We handle the collection; you dismantle and stack the lot somewhere the driver can bring his van alongside. As you take it down, lay the parts together by type and count them, so nobody is searching on collection day. Wipe the platform boards before they go on the pile, because gutter work drops more silt and leaf litter on your deck than you expect beforehand. Once that mud has dried on you will not get it off again.

Under your feet is a deck good for 200 kg on every square metre, which is load class 3 as the EN 1004 standard defines it. You never think about that on bracket work, until you are up there with a box of ironwork, a drill and someone holding the trough. So leave down what you do not need. Otherwise the usual agreements hold: brakes on before you step up, nothing and nobody aboard while it is being wheeled, and once the wind gets up you stop.

The risk that belongs to this job is above your head. As long as a fixing is loose, the weight of the trough rests on your strut or on your mate, and a gutter full of wet leaves weighs a good deal more than an empty one. So never work with two loose fixings at the same time and keep the zone below you clear: everything you take out of the gutter, from a handful of silt to a snapped screw, ends up on the ground.

Take care with the drill above your head as well. You work with raised arms, you are looking up and your balance is less certain than at eye level, so keep a hand on the rail whenever you have to stretch. After every shift along, check that all four stabilisers are firm again, because half a turn of play only shows itself when you push up hard. The remaining rules sit on the page covering safe work at height.