Replacing cladding? Choose the right scaffold.

On a house of two storeys this job lands you at the slim Altrex RS TOWER 51, 75 cm across the deck. That sounds meagre for work with long material, but going wider solves nothing here: a four metre plank does not lie on 135 cm either. What narrow does win you is weight. A light pitch is one you move on your own, and while replacing cladding you move it endlessly. The offer is set out at mobile scaffolds standing ready to hire.

There is one situation where the wide RS52 at 135 cm still wins: when two of you are up top and one holds the board to the line while the other drives screws. Then you want to stand alongside each other without tripping over tools. The condition is that the way through to the side elevation or the back garden takes that width, and on this sort of house there is often a gate or a slim path exactly there. Measure it before fixing a model.

What does earn a place on the 245 cm deck per set up is your tooling: a cordless driver, a box of screws, a wrecking bar, a hammer and a short level. Put those in a tray rather than loose, because loose tools slide along when you roll and drop off the edge. A second tray for what comes off is no luxury either: old screws and bent nails are not something to mix through your new fixings. Sizes are compared in the comparison of scaffold formats.

Your highest point is the top row of boards, and it finishes tight under the fascia or behind a closing batten. That is the row you must be able to reach properly, because it often sits captive under a profile you have to free first. Over two living storeys that comes to 6 to 8 metres of working height, with the deck at 4 to 6 metres, and above the platform you count on roughly 2 metres of extra reach. See the build for eight metres for that.

Measure the level of the wheels, not the level of your front door. With cladding on a side or rear wall the pitch often sits on a path lying below the terrace, or on a strip of gravel beside a sunken garden. Look as well at whether the boarding carries on into the gable end. If it does, your reach has to get there too, and that can easily mean a whole extra lift compared with a wall that stops at the gutter.

Hiring tight punishes you in its own way on this job. Fixing is done with both hands on the plank and a driver between your teeth or on your belt, and you do not then want to be up on your toes as well. A row sitting just too high forces an intermediate pitch on you, and that costs more than the height you could have booked. On a wall of two living storeys you take the roomier option.

Three things compete around the base of the pitch on this job: the tower itself, the skip for the old material and the stack of new planks. That stack wants to lie dry and flat, not in the grass and not in the sun, because boards that have twisted will never pull tight to the battens again. Lay them on bearers under a sheet, somewhere you can pick them up along the wall without swinging them round in a cramped corner.

The four stabilisers angle outward and want room the skip may not take. So put the skip a few metres further off, in line with the direction you are working, rather than tight beside the pitch. On soft ground the foot points get plates under them, and on a falling path you correct with the spindles. Walk right round before you lever off the first boards, because once stripping starts nobody gets near the feet in peace. There is more in the guidance on an uneven path.

Think as well about the room you need to tilt a plank. A four metre board does not turn in a corner two metres by two, so keep the run along the wall free and agree with the neighbours that you may cross their path if it truly cannot be helped. Finally, make sure there is no window, outside lamp or roof light inside the swing circle, because otherwise you will find it with the end of a board.

Count on more days than for any other job on a wall. Freeing a run of old boards still goes briskly, but then comes the work nobody schedules: screws and nails out, the battens checked over, membrane repaired, rotten timber renewed, and only after that the new rows fixed. For a side elevation of two storeys you hire the tower for three days; for a whole house you are nearer a week than four days. Add the build day, which goes almost entirely on the scaffold.

Those days want to run back to back as well. A wall left half open is vulnerable to rain and wind, so you do not begin a run you cannot close again the same day. Plan a quantity of work per set up that fits inside a day, and keep an eye on the forecast. New boards are best fixed dry, because moisture you build in stays in there for years. A run two metres wide and a storey high is a realistic day's task for most people.

The hire arrangement helps over a longer period. Only the first twenty four hours is billed in full; after that 95 per cent comes off each further rental day, so a week does not mount up the way that opening day suggests. Book with margin, then, because a run you cannot close costs you more than an extra day of tower. On a wall whose condition only shows once the first boards are off, that margin is no luxury. The piece on rental periods sets out how to work it out.

This is the point the whole job turns on. Deck length comes to 245 cm, and a cladding board very often does not. A four metre length therefore does not go on it: it overhangs at both ends, it tips the moment you tread on the middle of it and it shoves the guard rail away. The practical route is to cut to size below and carry up only the lengths that stay inside the deck, with the joints landing on a batten.

Where that is impossible, because you want continuous boards with no visible joint, you work with two pitches side by side or with a second person on a second tower. You then lift the plank up along the wall, rest it on two points and drive screws from both ends. That takes talking and patience, and it is the reason so many people do this job in a pair rather than alone. Agree who leads before the first board leaves the ground.

The old material travels the other way. Lower it rather than throwing it, because a board with nails in it bounces unpredictably and takes a window or a planter with it on the way. A bucket on a rope serves for small pieces; for the rest you use a second person below. Agree that nobody walks under the tower while material is coming down. Where the wall runs into masonry the approach differs; see repairing a facade.

The tower arrives in parts, counted and complete, and on this job that is the first of three stacks. Point out a place for it now that does not coincide with the skip or with your new planks, or you will spend the whole of the build day shuffling everything about. If it suits your planning, get the order in on a working day well before 15:00 and delivery follows on the next working day.

Delivery date and collection date you set yourself. Put the delivery a day ahead of your first stripping day, so you can build calmly without the wall already lying open. And set the collection well after your last fixing day, because on this work there is always one more batten, corner profile or bead of sealant to come. Do not book it for the same morning as the new timber, either, since two lorries on one drive does not work. Build times are in the step by step guide.

With the last boards in place the van comes for the mobile scaffold. Dismantling and laying it out complete is down to you. Check first that no screws, nails or slivers of timber are wedged between the deck boards, because those drop out during loading anyway. Wipe the parts down too if you have been working with sealant, and you will have nothing to scrape later. What bringing and fetching costs per province is at the delivery charges.

A square metre of deck may hold 200 kg. That is load class 3, the rating EN 1004 puts on towers like this one. On building work the ceiling comes closer than on cleaning: a bundle of planks, a case of tools and two people mount up fast. So never park a whole pack of new boards on the deck to work through later, but bring up what that hour actually needs. The explanation sits in the note on this standard.

The basic rules stand: wheels blocked before anyone climbs on, the pitch not rolled with a person or with material aboard, and no working on in a strong wind. That last one matters extra here, because a loose four metre plank in your hands acts as a sail and pulls you with it. At every new run, check the four stabilisers and the spindles before you drive the first screw. That is also the moment to see whether anything from the previous run is still lying on the boards.

The hazard that belongs to replacement is what falls. Old nails, snapped off pieces and a driver that slides off the deck all land in the same strip. Fence that strip off, let nobody walk through it and cut below rather than on the platform. Wear gloves against splinters and rusty points, and stow your tools the moment you climb down. A plank propped against the guard rail is not there when you come back. Further rules are in the regulations for work at height.