Roof work? Choose the right scaffold.

For roof work the RS52 with its 135 centimetre floor is the standard choice, and that is because something always goes up with you on jobs of this kind. A bucket for gutter muck, a couple of spare tiles, a sealant gun, a box of tools and often a second person as well. On a narrow floor all of that gets in its own way. What else is available you can see on the page about mobile scaffold hire, with the builds each version allows.

The slim 75 centimetre version stays a sound pick in one case: when the route to the back of your house runs through a gate narrower than a metre. Getting through then outweighs working room. If you are only busy at the street side, or you can walk the components round the house, take the wide one. For a garage roof or a low extension the MiTower with its smaller reach is sometimes already enough.

Keep the difference between model and build sharp when you reserve. The model settles the width of your floor and its length of 245 centimetres; the build settles the height you come out at. The same RS52 can go up low for the gutter of a bungalow and high for the roof edge of a house. Anyone who looks only at the model finds on the first morning that he is a metre short. So fill both fields in on purpose. Sizes per type sit together in the survey of tower measurements.

This is the question most people get stuck on, and the answer is simpler than expected. You measure not to the ridge and not to the chimney, but to the point where you will actually stand working: the gutter or the roof edge. Measure from the paving the castors will rest on up to that edge. At a bungalow or a garage you then sit at around six metres, at a house of two storeys at around nine.

Next translate that measurement into a working height. That figure is the height your floor hangs at, added to roughly two metres of reach, and it is exactly what you fill in when you reserve. For ordinary roof work on a home you land that way on a range of 6.2 to 10.2 metres. If you do not yet know which jobs you will all be doing, take the top of that range and not the middle; hiring on the edge of what you think you need seldom works out well here.

Choosing too tight is expensive on roof work, because the mistake only comes to light once you are already up there. Half a metre short means working in the gutter with straight arms, or not seeing the top row of tiles at all. A stance higher is one tick when you reserve. If you are unsure how high to sit at your type of house, look at the height per storey or at the page with working heights.

On roof work the setup rarely stands in one place. The gutter runs round, the tiles lie on two planes and the fascia sits on every side, so you shift position several times a day. That means you are not judging one standing place but a route. Walk that route beforehand and look at the ground per side: paving at the front, a narrow garden path along the flank, grass or slabs at the back where the castors sink in after rain. Note per side what you need in base plates or planks.

In every place the four stabilisers have to be able to come out fully. Along a house there are standard things in the way: a downpipe with a shoe, an outside tap, a cellar hatch, garden furniture and the neighbours' hedge. Clear away what you can before the parts arrive, because hauling things aside mid job costs you a quarter of an hour per move. How to get a setup solid on a sloping or soft patch is covered under stabilising and anchoring.

On roof work think about the overhang too. If the roof plane hangs a fair way outside the wall, the setup will not come tight against the brickwork and you work with a longer reach to the edge. In that case pick a little extra height rather than a little less distance to the wall. Does your home stand straight on the pavement? Ask the council what is permitted and always keep a walking route clear for people and pushchairs.

No single figure can be given here, because roof work runs from half a day to a fortnight. A round along the gutter you do on a Saturday; replacing a few tiles costs a day; painting fascia in three coats fills a week; insulating the roof longer still. So first settle what you are certainly going to do and then add what you will probably meet on the way and want to take in at once. That second item is rarely zero, and it is the one that decides whether your period is generous enough.

Then reckon with the slow moments and not the fast ones. Paint has to dry, sealant has to cure, and in rain or strong wind you simply cannot work at the roof edge. A job that takes two days on paper therefore often asks four hire days in practice. Add a half day for building and another for striking and clearing up, and your planning usually adds up. Count only the working hours and you will be phoning midweek for an extension.

Happily a generous reservation is not dear with us. You settle the whole rate over day one; every day you stick on behind it goes along with 95 per cent off. That is exactly why roof work is better booked on the roomy side: you take the unexpected in your stride, without a second reservation and without an extra run by the van. More on that under the length of your hire period; each rental price stands on the price page.

A tower takes you as far as the roof edge, and whatever plays out there is yours to do. Think of emptying the gutter and going over the brackets, checking the lowest rows of tiles, painting fascia and edge timber, taking moss off along the rim, fitting a lamp or a vent, and first of all looking at the whole thing calmly before you touch anything. That last is wiser more often than people think, because from the ground you miss half. The page on inspecting your roof is a good starting point.

What you do not do with it matters just as much. A mobile scaffold is not a step for walking up the pitched plane, and it does not bring you to the ridge or to a chimney in the middle of the roof. Cherry pickers, system scaffolding and facade scaffolds are not things we hire out, so work higher up the plane calls for other kit. What is and is not possible is set out under a tower at a pitched roof, the question of when to call in a professional included.

Per setup you finish about 245 centimetres of roof edge, because that is the length of your floor. An average home has thirty to forty metres of edge, so count on twelve to sixteen standing places per round. That figure is the handiest sum you have: multiply it by the time you think each standing place will take, and you know at once how many hire days go into it, whether you are emptying the gutter or replacing tiles. That beats guessing by feel afterwards.

You receive the tower as loose components, complete and counted in advance, so you decide where the stack ends up. Look for a spot you will not be using during the roof work, and certainly not the strip where your buckets and spare tiles are going to stand. Place the order on a working day and beat 15:00, and delivery lands on the next working day. Both dates you state yourself when reserving, so you can put the drop on a Friday if you want to work the weekend.

Building is under your own management. The manual in the box and the video that goes with it run through the assembly order; two people have the first setup standing in roughly half a day. Reckon that in on its own, since your building day rarely leaves room for real roof work, however early you make a start. For outdoor jobs it is also handy to lay your delivery day at the beginning of a dry stretch, so you can carry straight on.

Once you have finished, you take the setup apart and the van calls one last time for the components. Lay them complete and within reach and keep the count while dismantling, then nothing is missing afterwards and the return goes through without queries. The rate for a run out and back to your address stands with the delivery charges; if you are taking in the maintenance of your roof in the same period, plan that straight afterwards.

Every floor we hire out is built to EN 1004 and falls under load class 3, which comes down to two hundred kilos per square metre. On roof work you get nearer to that than when painting, because a bucket of wet leaves, a stack of tiles and two people add up hard. Spread the weight over the full length and do not pile everything at the access, since that is precisely the spot where you are standing too. Worked examples sit under load and weight.

The fixed agreements are short: brakes on before anyone climbs, never wheel with a person or material up top, and stop as soon as it blows hard. That wind limit you reach sooner at the roof edge than along a facade, because there you stand in the full wind and loose tiles or sheets can go with it. After every move walk the four supports and set the build level again before anyone goes up. Two minutes per standing place, and the cheapest insurance there is.

On roof work one risk comes along that you do not have elsewhere: everything lying on a sloping plane slides off in the end. A chisel, a tile, a lump of moss or a screwdriver comes down beside your setup. Keep that zone clear, put something eye catching in it and warn whoever is busy in the garden. In a terrace, with the neighbours right beside you, that is no wasted trouble. The full list stands under working at height.