Cleaning cladding? Choose the right scaffold.

Surprisingly little travels up for this job: a bucket of tepid water, a soft brush or a wash brush, a hose running at low pressure and a couple of cloths. Any more than that and you start catching the boards with something hard. Which is why the Altrex RS TOWER 51 belongs here, narrow at 75 cm across. It fits the path along a side elevation, where cladding tends to sit in the first place. The whole selection is set out under mobile scaffolds available to hire.

There is a second argument for going narrow. A light frame is one you shift single handed, and on this job you shift constantly, because only a limited face can be finished properly at a time. Should a second person need to come up, or should you want buckets and a container of cleaning product beside you, then it becomes the wide RS52 at 135 cm, and you accept that the way through to the back has to be roomier.

The deck is 245 cm long, and that length settles the strip of cladding you treat per set up. On horizontal boards it means finishing every plank across that width, from the top row to the bottom one, and only then rolling on. On vertical boards it runs differently, since you take plank by plank over the full height. You work in smaller units than on a solid wall, and the number of moves shows it. Sizes are compared in the overview of scaffold sizes.

The highest point in this work is the top row of boards, tucked just under the fascia or the overhang. Over two living storeys that puts you on a working height of 6 to 8 metres. The platform then stands at 4 to 6 metres, because on top of the platform there is roughly 2 metres of reach to add. That number is what you pass on when you reserve. The build that belongs with it is shown at eight metres of working height.

When measuring, note where the cladding actually starts. Plenty of walls carry a brick plinth at the bottom with timber or plastic boards only above it, and sometimes the cladding is confined to the gable end. That changes nothing about the height you have to make, but it changes how you build up: you need reach to the top edge, not to somewhere halfway. Measure from the path the wheels will sit on, not from a terrace that lies a step higher.

Reserving too low goes badly here, and not only because you miss a strip. The moment you begin stretching you put more force on the brush than you meant to, and on a coating that shows up afterwards as a dull band. That is precisely the damage you set out to avoid. So choose the roomier reach. On a wall of two living storeys that means getting above the roof edge. Half a metre of extra reach costs you next to nothing at booking.

Cladding usually sits on the side or the back of a house, and there is rarely a broad terrace there. Your pitch therefore lands on a path, a strip of gravel or a patch of grass, with the wall an arm's length away. Deliberately keep a few centimetres between the frame and the boards. A tube that taps a plastic panel or a timber plank leaves a dent or a streak that no amount of cleaning will take out again.

Stabilisers angle outward at all four corners and each of them claims its own place. Along a narrow path that puts you into the border or up against the boundary fence surprisingly quickly. Look too at what protrudes from the wall lower down, since an outside tap, a vent grille, the gutter outlet or a crawl hatch all get in the way. On soft or falling ground, lay plates under the foot points; the guidance on uneven ground covers that.

One more thing that often goes wrong at these walls: the cladding is not a support. The boards are fixed to battens and carry nothing themselves, so you do not lean the tower against them, you tie nothing to them, and you do not push off the wall while rolling. All the stability comes from the stabilisers and from level ground. Get those two right before you carry the first bucket up. A pitch that only stays upright thanks to the wall is no pitch at all.

This work refuses to be hurried. Per set up you spend roughly three quarters of an hour soaping, brushing and rinsing off, because you go through each row of boards separately instead of sweeping across the face in long strokes. A single side elevation of two storeys is therefore a day of work. Go right round the house and you are at two days, and with a gable end or a bay window added it runs on further than you judge from the ground.

The build day comes on top of that, done in half a day but with little else achieved on it. Weather steers your planning as well. In full sun the product dries on the boards before you have rinsed, which leaves marks on exactly the face you meant to improve. In frost you do not start at all, because water stands in the joints. Overcast and dry is the best combination there is for cleaning cladding.

So do not set your rental period tight against your own estimate. You pay the full rate for the first twenty four hours; every day beyond it goes at 95 per cent off, so a day of slack costs you next to nothing. And if the cleaning reveals boards ready for replacement, that spare day is your inspection day with the tower still standing. Judging such a period in advance is covered in the note on rental days.

Per set up you take on a face 245 cm wide, and within it you work strictly downwards. Begin at the top row, brush along the length of the boards and rinse that row before you drop to the next. Keep the jet pointed at a downward angle at all times. Aim it upward against the lap and the water travels behind the cladding, where you only find out months later what it has done in there.

Move on with the hose in your hand and not with the hose under the wheels. Close the tap before you climb down, lay the line in a generous curve along your direction of travel, then roll the tower through to the next strip in one go. Brake the wheels, set the stabilisers out again and check that you still have those few centimetres of clearance to the boards. Two minutes, and no crushed hose or dented panel.

What people misjudge is the number of joints. A wall that reads as one smooth face from below turns out at close range to be dozens of planks, each with its own edge of dirt. Tape the vent grilles before you start. Bear in mind too that a face gleaming wet looks cleaner than it is; only once dry do you see where you still have to go. If rot or a split panel shows under the grime, see replacing cladding.

The tower is delivered in loose, counted components: standards, braces, deck boards, guard rails and wheels. Decide beforehand where that pile ends up, and do not lean it against the wall, because a tube sliding along plastic or timber makes precisely the scratch you were trying to avoid. A drive or a piece of terrace suits better. Delivery follows a simple rule: order on a working day, before 15:00 has passed, and we drive out to you the next working day.

The date the delivery happens and the date everything is fetched again are yours to set when you hire. For this job you want a dry, overcast run of days with no night frost, so look further ahead than tomorrow. Put the delivery a day before your first working day and you can build in peace. That build is laid out step by step in the guide to erecting a tower. Schedule it on a day you could not clean anyway and you lose no working time.

Once your last working day is behind you the van comes back for the tower. Taking it apart and laying every component together is your part, preferably on the same spot it arrived. Let the deck boards dry off before you stack them and rinse traces of product from the tubes. Counting as you strip down saves searching afterwards, because a single loose brace in the grass is not something you find later. What the trip to your province costs, out and back, is listed at delivery costs.

These decks sit in load class 3 and carry 200 kg per square metre, a figure EN 1004 fixes for towers of this sort. For cleaning cladding that is generous, since you take little up with you. It still mounts up the moment a second person joins you with a bucket in each hand, and a bucket of tepid water is ten kilos in itself. Spread the weight over the deck. What the class actually says is unpacked in the note on this scaffold standard.

The same standing agreements apply to this wet work. Wheels go on the brake before anybody climbs up, the pitch is never moved with a person or with kit on it, and you stop as soon as it blows hard. Wind is extra unwelcome here because the mist off your hose drifts everywhere and settles on windows and on the car. Walk the four stabilisers at every new strip before you start again, and check the wheels really are locked.

The particular risk on this job is the water. A deck with cleaning product spilled on it turns lethally slippery, so rinse the platform between runs and wipe it afterwards. Keep the strip beneath the pitch empty, because a brush or a bucket that falls arrives below at speed. Watch for sockets and outside lights before you turn the hose on, since on this kind of wall they often sit in a routed out board. The rest is in the rules for working at height.