Painting a garage door? Choose the right scaffold.

A door panel does not ask for a big setup, but it does ask for one you can move aside without help and that never blocks you. That is why you hire a MiTower of 75 cm wide here: a tower for one person, which you roll along on your own without somebody steering the other end. Next to an opening of two and a half metres that leaves enough drive to walk past with a tin in your hand. Which versions stand ready is shown at the MiTower in the hire fleet.

The platform length of 245 cm is the measure that counts here. A standard garage door is about that wide, so you stand in one position in front of the whole panel and never have to stop halfway across. That is exactly what you want with gloss work: carry on to the edge of the panel, so the wet paint runs nowhere against a dried line. Deck width you barely need, because you carry no more than a tin and a brush up there.

For a door set in a tall elevation, or when two people work the panel at once, you can hire a mobile scaffold instead: the RS51 is just as narrow but carries more and reaches further. For ordinary work on an up and over door that is overkill; there the light tower wins precisely because you drag it aside single handed between two coats. You will find both towers side by side in the mobile scaffolds we hire out.

A garage door is usually 2.00 to 2.25 metres high, and above it often sits a lintel or a timber trim you take in during the same session because you are standing there anyway. That puts your highest point around 2.5 metres. Even so you do not hire the very lowest build there is: you want to look at the top edge straight on rather than squinting up at it from below. A setup landing between 4 and 6 metres working height gives you that freedom.

Working height means something other than the height of your deck. On top of the platform height you count roughly two metres of reach, the distance a stretched arm still bridges above your head. Stand at two metres and you work comfortably up to about four. For a door panel that means a low build, with the platform somewhere between one and a half and two metres. What the various builds deliver in practice is set out on the page about working height.

Measure from the paving in front of the door and not from the floor inside, because those two seldom sit level. Stand too low and you finish the top rail and the trim with raised arms, and you see that back in an uneven coat. Bear in mind as well that this tower reaches 6.2 metres working height and no higher. If a storey above the door is being taken in during the same session, this model does not cover the job.

An up and over door swings its bottom edge outwards as it opens and describes a whole arc over the drive before the panel hangs horizontally under the roof. How far that reaches depends on the type, but count on half a metre to almost a full metre in front of the opening. Anything inside that path blocks the door or takes a knock. So put the scaffold beside the opening and not in front of it, and check once with the door open that the stabilisers really stay clear.

The ground here is usually block paving or concrete with a slight fall towards the gutter. You take that up with the levelling feet, so the tower stands true and every wheel carries. Watch the threshold: many drives have a raised strip or a channel right in front of the door, and you do not want a wheel half up on it. How to deal with such a step is covered in the piece on ground that is not flat.

Look further at what sits around the door: an outside light above the lintel, a downpipe in the corner, the release lock halfway up and the car still parked in front of it. Hiring a scaffold makes little sense while the drive is only half empty. Clear the metre either side of the opening first and move the bikes out, and you can genuinely reposition the setup later without lifting things first. It saves time during the build as well.

The surface is small, but you do not paint a door in an afternoon. First the old coat comes off, or at least goes dull: sanding, degreasing, treating rust spots on a steel door and priming the bare patches. Only then does the first coat go on. On a timber up and over door the end grain and the bottom edge belong to that too, and they ask for separate attention. Two rental days is realistic for most doors, three if the door is in poor shape.

The drying time between the coats settles the rest of your planning. You can only close the door once the paint has gone hard enough, and in practice that means leaving it either open or shut for a good part of the day. So work in cloudy dry weather rather than in full sun, because a metal panel in the sun dries on the outside faster than you can finish the pass you are laying.

For your booking that works out well. The first twenty four hours is the dearest part of the whole rental period; whatever you hang behind it counts with 95 per cent off. So an extra day of margin for the drying costs you next to nothing. Set the collection date a day after your last painting day: you want the tower still there if an edge needs touching in the next morning. What the models and build heights cost stands with VAT on the page of rental prices.

On the platform you stand slightly above the middle of the door, and that is the pleasantest position to work from: the top panels straight in front of you, the lower ones within reach if you bend. On a sectional door you follow the panels from top to bottom; on a timber up and over door you work field by field and keep the brush running with the boards. Because your deck is 245 cm long, an ordinary door needs no repositioning at all.

Take everything up in one go: tin, brush, roller, a cloth and the abrasive paper for the spots you only notice close to. Put nothing loose on the edge, because a toppled tin of gloss on block paving is an afternoon of cleaning and a stain that stays. If you want to open the door in between, climb down first, roll the tower a metre aside and lock the wheels again afterwards. That costs half a minute and saves a damaged door edge.

Do not underestimate the top edge of the panel and the strip under the lintel. From the pavement you hardly see either, but the moment the door stands open everyone looks straight at them and a missed edge shows at once. Take them while you are up there anyway, together with the end grain on the side of the panel. Then step back a few metres and check the whole surface for runs and thin spots before you roll the tower away.

The parts arrive as a complete set, counted and bundled, with the van right up to your drive. Do not have them laid down squarely in front of the door, because they then sit in the very path you want kept free; along the side wall or against the fence is handier. For the planning this holds: a booking that lands before 15:00 on a working day leaves for your address the following working day. You name that date yourself, and the date it may go again.

Building it is your own job, and with this tower that goes fine alone. An assembly manual comes in the set and a video belongs with it in which every step passes by. Take a calm hour over it the first time and put the tower together before you start sanding, while the drive is still empty and clean. If you live near the city you may also fetch the parts yourself at Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam, free and by appointment.

On the agreed day we come to collect the scaffold again. Have it broken down and complete by then, and take care that no parts lean against a freshly painted door. We count the set through as it is loaded, so stack the pieces together in a dry spot rather than spread over the drive and the grass. What the delivery and the collection cost together differs by province; those amounts stand with VAT on the page with the delivery charges.

The biggest risk on this job is not the height but the door itself. An up and over door hangs on springs or weights and shoots up faster on opening than you expect. So never stand on the scaffold while somebody else operates the door, and hang no cloth or lead over the track. Lock the wheels the moment you climb up, and never move the tower while tools lie on it or a person stands on the deck.

The platform under you belongs to load class 3 of EN 1004, which is 200 kg on every square metre. On a door job you come nowhere near that, but do watch how you spread the weight: a tin of gloss and a bucket of water on the same side, with you beside them, gives more movement than is pleasant. Keep your things in the middle of the deck, use the guard rail to hold on to and not as a step, and lay nothing on the edge.

Finally, mind the wind and the people around you. An open up and over door works like a sail and can slam against the setup in a gust, so in strong wind you paint with the door shut or shift a day. Keep children away from the tower while a tin stands open, and park the car further off so nobody has to manoeuvre past the scaffold. If it really blows, that is a day not to go up at all.