Installing gutter brackets? Choose the right scaffold.

Along a house the Altrex RS TOWER 51 is the model for this, a mobile scaffold that builds 75 cm wide. Setting out a gutter line means rolling up and down the same strip for an afternoon, and every centimetre of width you do not actually need costs you time at every single move. On top of that you have to steer past an extension, a shed or a low lean to that often sits directly under the new gutter. Compare the builds at the mobile scaffold hire fleet.

More ends up on the 245 cm deck than you might expect. A cordless drill, a box of plugs, a handful of brackets, a level or a laser, a roll of setting out line and the gutter profile itself, which usually turns up in lengths of several metres. That length lies neatly along the long side of the boards, and it is exactly why deck length weighs heavier here than width. Once that lot is up, you do not want to climb down for every bracket.

If you would rather rent wider, the 135 cm RS TOWER 52 is meant for the case where two of you work and the gutter goes straight in while the brackets are still being levelled. Two people with a gutter section between them have too little slack on 75 cm to pass each other. Working alone and fitting all the brackets first, the narrow build wins on every passage. Both are set out in the overview of scaffold sizes.

What settles this job is not the gutter but the topmost bracket of your line, and that one sits at the high end of the fall. If it lands four to six metres above the paving, you order 6 to 8 metres of working height. Take the height of your platform, allow another 2 metres of reach beyond it, and you know where your hands will actually get to. Which sections make up that build is laid out on the page covering eight metres of working height.

Do not forget that your line does not run level. Over ten metres of elevation the fall drops noticeably towards the outlet, so at that end you are working lower than at the starting point. You absorb that difference in the build you hire: better one notch roomier than drilling at the highest bracket with your arms stretched right out above you. If the paving underfoot also slopes away from the house, that difference simply adds to it.

Going too tight bites you in an unpleasant way here. You drill with both hands above shoulder height, and that costs you precisely the accuracy a gutter line cannot do without. A hole a centimetre out of place pulls the whole bracket askew, and you see that back later in the way the water runs along the trough. For a gutter along the floor above the ground floor take the higher build whenever you are in any doubt.

On many jobs you look for one good spot and stay put. Here it is different: the entire length of the elevation is your work area, because while setting out you run from one end to the other two or three times. So walk that whole lane before you hire a mobile scaffold, not only the stretch where you mean to begin. The ground has to be flat enough everywhere and the four stabilisers have to swing out everywhere without fouling something.

Under a gutter there is seldom an empty strip. A water butt stands beneath the outlet, a gravel trap lies against the wall, a terrace begins, or a fence stands less than a metre away. Look especially at the point where the outlet will come, because that is where the obstacles gather and where you need to work most precisely. For a garden path that sinks or slopes, the explanation of ground and level differences offers a workable answer.

Think about the string you stretch as well. It runs at eaves height from corner to corner and must not snag anywhere on a standard, a guard rail or a stabiliser that is swung out. Stretch it a little outside the lane you roll along, or unhook it whenever you move and put it back on the same marks. A string that has shifted by accident costs you half a day of setting out again, so take a few minutes over it.

This job breaks into three passes along the same wall, and that explains the hire period better than any bracket count. In the first pass you settle the high point, stretch the string and mark off every fixing point. In the second you drill and make the brackets fast. In the third you hang the gutter profile and check the whole run for fall. On an average elevation that adds up to two to three hire days.

There are waits in it you cannot skip. Working with chemical anchors in old brickwork, you have to let them cure before you dare hang a gutter full of water on them. Weather plays a part too: a stretched line bobs in the gusts and then you are simply fooling yourself with the measurements. Such a day is better spent laying out material than pressing on with the line. Those hours count in your hire period all the same.

Booking roomy is hardly dearer with this rental. The opening twenty four hours are settled at the whole amount, after which each following hire day carries 95 per cent off. So a day too many almost always turns out better than a day too few. An extra day for a windless morning costs little, while hiring too short means leaving the gutter half levelled and coming back later. How to judge such periods is set out with examples in the piece on hire days.

Each position puts a good two metres of elevation within reach. How many fixing points fall inside that depends on the spacing your gutter profile wants, but in practice you place a handful per position. Work those points right through before you roll on: mark, drill, plug in, bracket on, and check straight away that it sits on the string. Coming back because one hole is missing costs you a move you could easily have avoided.

Take everything belonging to those two metres up in one go. A drill with a charged battery, the correct bit, plugs, screws, the brackets for this bay and a short level to check each point. Hang a small tub from the guard rail for the little bits, because a plug that drops five metres is never found again in the grass. That keeps your deck clear and keeps you on top of the job. A second battery up there saves a trip to the charger.

Where this job goes wrong is the order of work. Plenty of people start at the corner and screw brackets home as they shift along, after which the fall no longer comes out at the outlet. So set out the full length first and only then drill. That is precisely the difference with swapping the brackets under an existing gutter, where the hanging trough already dictates your line and you can work point by point.

The set turns up as loose, counted parts on the spot you point out. Steer clear of the strip directly under the new gutter line, because that is exactly the lane you will be running along several times. A drive, a piece of pavement or the side of the house works better, as long as the van can reach it. Anything settled before 15:00 on a working day heads your way the next working day, so delivery ties neatly to your first setting out day.

You name the day it arrives and the day it goes, and on this job you let the forecast weigh heavily. Still air is worth its weight in gold when a string has to be pulled taut over ten metres, so put a calm morning down as your first working day. Building is your own task, using the supplied manual and the video; reckon on half a day and do not start setting out that same afternoon. The steps in order are in the assembly instructions.

Once the gutter hangs and everything has been checked, you strike the build and we load it back into the van. Lay the parts together complete, so the counting goes quickly. We then take the lot in one run, stabilisers, castors and loose couplers included. Allow for bringing and fetching in your planning, which together cost a fixed amount per province including VAT; the figure for your address sits with the rates for delivery and collection.

The deck under your feet falls into load class 3 of EN 1004 and therefore carries 200 kg on every square metre. Add that weight up calmly before you haul everything aloft in one trip. On this job it mounts: a cordless drill, a box of plugs, a stack of steel brackets and a gutter section of several metres come to more than they look, certainly with somebody standing beside you. What the class means is explained quietly in the article on this scaffold standard.

Drilling above your head carries a risk of its own. You push hard against the wall, and that force pushes you the other way. Check that the brakes really are locked before you start, keep your hips inside the guard rails, and never use the build as something to prop a gutter section against. Drill with a short machine rather than a long one, because it pushes back less. Do not move the tower with tools or a person on it, and stop when it begins to blow hard.

Below you on this job there is always something sharp. A bracket that drops, a bit that shoots out of the chuck or a length of gutter that slides off lands precisely on the path the rest of the household walks along. Cordon that strip off while you are up there and work with a lanyard on your drill. Tell the people indoors that nothing may be put down under the gutter line either. More rules are in the safety guidance.