Painting a dormer roof? Choose the right scaffold.

Here too the Altrex RS52 is the model you take, the 135 cm wide version with levels up to 14.2 metres. The width has a different reason on this job than on wall work: you stand high and you bend forward to work on a surface lying lower than your chest. Then you want a deck you can plant both feet on firmly. All the available sizes stand together in the overview of mobile scaffolds in the hire range.

Paint comes up with you, and that makes deck space a practical matter. A tin, a tray, a roller on a pole, brushes, a cloth and a roll of tape all have to go somewhere, and at ten metres you do not want to fetch anything more. On a platform 245 cm long you set that down along the short side and keep the long side free as your working strip, so you can slide along the little roof without stepping over a tin.

The narrow version comes just as high, only you stand less roomily on it at the moment you bend forward to take the back edge of the dormer roof. That is precisely the movement that makes this job awkward. Only go for the narrow build if the route to the standing position is too tight for 135 cm, and then keep your material at the bottom to leave the deck clear. What else a dormer involves is in this explanation about dormers.

Your measuring point is the flat roof itself, and you want to look across it. So reckon from the paving up to the top of that surface and add half a metre, because your deck belongs above it. On a dormer on a house of two storeys that lands you in the 8 to 12 metre class, with your platform between six and ten metres. Above that platform you still reach about two metres yourself, but here you do not use that reach: you need it below you.

That makes this job different from every other task on a dormer. For the front, the sill or the frame you choose a level where you work straight ahead of you, and then a lower build will do. For the little roof you pick one or two levels higher, because otherwise you are painting by feel. Anyone combining the two jobs hires at the higher of the two levels and does not rebuild in between, since that costs you half a day.

Do not forget the horizontal distance. The dormer roof lies behind the front of the dormer, and that in turn lies behind the eaves, so you are reaching across a stretch of sloping roof. The deeper the dormer stands on the roof, the higher you have to be to bring that back edge into view. Take that depth into the same measurement as the height, or your level will not be right. The page on ten metres of working height shows what such a level takes.

The higher you build, the less the ground may give. At a level of ten metres the weight presses on four small base plates, so you look for setts, slabs on a solid base, or asphalt. A lawn, a border or freshly made up sand is out, even when it looks firm. If there is nothing else, put wide boards or steel plates under the feet, so the pressure is spread over a larger area and the scaffold does not sink away.

The spot itself follows from where the dormer is. If it stands on the front roof you usually end up on the footway or a parking bay, and you talk to the council and to the neighbours. If it lies on the rear roof, the question is mainly whether you get the parts through the gate and whether there is a level piece of garden or terrace big enough. Count on room for the four stabilisers, which at this height belong fully extended.

Set the build slightly off the centre line of the dormer, towards whichever side you mean to start on. With a little roof two to three metres wide you will not make the far corner from a single point unless you start hanging. A second place along the same elevation is quicker and safer then, so reckon on two standing positions when you reserve. For sloping or uneven ground you can keep this piece on uneven ground beside you.

The surface to be painted is small; the waiting is not. You start with cleaning and sanding, then you lay a coat, and only when that has fully cured may the next one go on. On a flat surface moisture also lies longer than on a sloping roof, so in the morning it is often still wet with dew while the wall is already dry. Two to three hire days is therefore a realistic plan, even if each coat takes you only an hour.

The weather steers this job more than you would like. Full sun on a flat little roof heats the surface so much that paint pulls away too quickly, and wind at ten metres puts dust and leaves into your wet coat. The hours early in the morning or late in the afternoon are often the best moment. Hire your period so that you can pick out two or three of those moments rather than forcing one.

Fixing extra days for that need hardly cost you anything. Only the opening twenty four hours is charged in full; every day you stick behind it has 95 per cent taken off. Booking generously is therefore cheaper than stopping halfway and putting a ten metre scaffold up again later, with a second journey on top. That keeps the rental price predictable while you wait on the weather. In this piece on the hire period you read how others judge it.

From a scaffold deck of 245 cm you cover almost the whole width of an average little roof. The depth is the problem: the back edge, where the flat surface meets the sloping roof, lies furthest away. So work from the back forwards, so that you never have to lean over a wet strip to touch something up. That keeps your way out to the guard rail dry and leaves only the near edge to finish at the end.

Moving is part of it, even though the surface is small. For the second half of the little roof you stand a few metres to the side, and you make that move with an empty deck: paint and tools off, brakes released, a few metres along, stabilisers set out again and only then your things back up. Count on two positions of the mobile scaffold at a normal dormer and on three if it is wide or a side has to be painted too.

Carry every last item up in a single trip. At this height, going down for a forgotten brush is a climb of ten metres and back, and with a half laid coat you do not have that time. What people underestimate is the twisting: you work bent over, you are looking down and you have to step sideways each time to move on along the edge. If the rest of the dormer is on the list, plan it straight after in the same hire period.

You receive the mobile scaffold in loose parts, counted and complete, and for a level of ten metres that is a considerable load. Choose in advance a place where those parts may lie without blocking the door or the garden path, and remember that paint tins, a step and dust sheets are coming as well. An order placed ahead of 15:00 on a working day puts the load on the road for the following working day, and that date is yours to name.

Building is your own work. There is a manual in the set, and the accompanying video runs through the order with you; with two people you put this level up in half a day. Plan that build for the day before your first coat and not for the same morning, because then you start painting when the best weather of the day has already gone. What the journey costs you can see at the rates for delivery per province.

Collection is ours again, on the day you gave when you reserved. You take the build apart and lay all the parts together where a van can pull up alongside. Only do that once the last coat is truly dry, or you drag paint across the deck boards and the guard rails. Pass the parts down from the top with two of you rather than dropping them onto the slabs, because that is what the count reckons with.

The deck boards answer to EN 1004 in load class 3, so a square metre of decking may take 200 kg. For painting that is ample, because you take little weight up with you. What does count at this height: lock the castors before you step up, let nobody stand on the build while it is being moved, and stop working as soon as the wind gets a grip on the decks. More on that is in the notes on this standard.

The real risk of this job is hanging forward. Because you work on a surface that lies lower and further away, the temptation to lean over the guard rail or put a foot on the bottom rail is strong. That is exactly the movement that gets people into trouble at ten metres. Rather move the build one more time, even if it costs a quarter of an hour. And never step onto the flat little roof itself to finish the last corner.

Finally, watch what is happening below. A paint tin you catch with your elbow comes down from ten metres and goes straight through a roof window or over a car. Stand your tins against the upstand of the deck, close them the moment you take a break and keep the zone under the scaffold completely clear. Tell the household and the neighbours when you are working above, certainly if their driveway falls within that area.