Pruning a climbing plant? Choose the right scaffold.

For cutting a climbing plant back you hire the Altrex RS51, 75 cm wide and light with it. That measurement is the whole point here: between the plant and the path, or between the wall and a hedge, there is often not a metre left. A narrow pitch you also roll on your own along the length of a trained plant, and on this job you do that ten times a day. The whole range is on all the mobile scaffolds we hire out.

You need little on the deck for pruning work. Hand shears, loppers with a short handle, a small saw for a thick stem, twine and a bucket the shoots go into straight away. Unlike taking a plant off, there is never a heap of greenery on your platform, because you cut in small amounts and they go into the bucket at once. That limited loading is exactly why 75 cm is enough here, while a wall full of ivy calls for the wide version.

Deck length stays 245 cm on the narrow version too, so you give up width alone. If two of you are working, or the whole wall has to come bare in one season, look at the wide RS52 or at removing ivy, because then the approach changes. If it stays a trim of a trained plant or a wisteria, narrow and manoeuvrable is the better answer here. You also rent less working height, since you do not have to reach over the ridge or into the roof slope.

On a climbing plant you are cutting back, your highest point is the topmost shoots and not the ridge. A trained plant on a two storey house usually runs to just under or just over the gutter, and that lands you on 6 to 8 metres of reach. The deck sits between 4 and 6 metres up; the rest is what you can stretch to, roughly 2 metres above the boards. For the range look at a build up to 8 metres working height.

The measuring point at the bottom is rarely where the plant roots on this job. A climber stands in a border, a raised planter or against a low wall, while you roll along the path beside it. So measure upwards from that path. If a terrace sits a step higher or lower, take the level of your wheels. And if the plant runs over a pergola or a carport as well, count that structure in, because you have to be able to look across it.

Renting too tight you only notice once you are up there. The topmost shoots of a climbing plant are precisely the ones you want to shorten, because that is where it goes looking for the gutter and the tiles. Fall just short of them and that stretch stays, and the following year the plant heads straight back that way. So take one section more rather than less; that saves you a second pruning round with a fresh rental period.

The pitch goes next to the climbing plant, not into it. Standing a leg in a border goes wrong: the soil is loose, the foot sinks and the roots of the very plant that has to survive take a knock. So put the tower on the garden path, the terrace or the drive alongside, and keep half a metre off the green so you can still cut past it. On soft ground a slab or a plate goes under every foot.

Look at what sits in and behind the green before you build. A guided climbing plant nearly always hangs on tension wires, eye bolts or a timber frame, and those run at exactly the height you want your guard rail. A pergola post, a downpipe or a low garden wall is often just inside your running lane too. Mark what stays and take away what can go, because shifting an erected tower past an obstacle costs more time than you think.

Climbing plants like to grow over a boundary, and then the neighbours are involved. If the pitch stands partly on their path, or the part to be cut hangs above their garden, mention it before the delivery arrives. The same goes for a shared gate or a narrow passage the set has to come through. If your path slopes or lies unevenly, read the explanation of stabilising before you start building. Relaying a few slabs is quickly done.

Pruning goes faster than people expect. Per pitch you are half an hour with the shears, and after that ten minutes raking together and carting off. A trained plant along a front elevation you finish in a day, building and dismantling included. If the plant covers the side wall or a pergola as well, count on two rental days. The number of pitches sets your time, not the number of branches that have to come off.

What really sets your planning is the season. A climbing plant is pruned in its dormant period or just after flowering, depending on the species, and roughly from March into July there are birds in it. If you come to a dense frame in those months, check for nests first and put it off if you must. So pick your rental days by the calendar before you look at your own diary and the forecast. A dry, still day is by far the pleasantest for this work.

Booking roomily costs little here. Only over the first 24 hours do you pay in full; on every day you keep it after that sits 95 per cent off. An extra day in case it rains, or for clearing up, is therefore cheap insurance. So set your collection date a day after your pruning day and you never stop with half a trained plant done because the van is at the kerb. What the rental price of this build works out at you can see on the page with the tariffs.

Per pitch you take a bay of 245 cm, and on a guided climbing plant that lines up neatly with the panels between the tension wires. Work from the top down so the cut wood falls on the part you still have to do. Tie back straight away whatever stays, because if you save that for the end you are standing at every pitch again with a roll of twine, and that is precisely the time you meant to save.

Shifting is your biggest cost of time on this job, and that is exactly why narrow is pleasant. A 75 cm pitch you push along the path alone, without needing somebody to hold the other side. Do sweep the cuttings out from under the wheels first and check that no runner has wound itself round a leg or a stabiliser. Then the brakes go back on and the feet spread again before you carry on cutting.

What catches people out is the distance to the green. Because the plant stays, your deck sits half a metre off the wall, and then you almost automatically want to lean over the rail for that one last branch. Do not; move the pitch once more instead. Work with short shears rather than a long handle as well: on a narrow deck a pole like that pulls you off balance the moment you hold it above your head.

The mobile scaffold arrives in loose parts, complete and counted. Find a spot for them in advance that is not in the border and not on the path you have to roll along. A drive, a bit of lawn or the pavement works better. Put a wheelbarrow or a bin beside it for the cuttings. A booking wrapped up on a working day ahead of 15:00 puts the van at your address the working day after.

The dropping off and the picking up are on days you name, and with pruning work that hangs heavily on the season. Pick a day in the dormant period of your plant and let the delivery fall a day earlier, so you can build calmly without your pruning day going on it. Putting it up is your part; we do not stand it there for you. A narrow build to eight metres takes about an hour with two of you, manual and video to hand.

Bringing and collecting together costs a fixed amount per province, including VAT; what that comes to for you is under the rates for delivery. You are welcome to fetch it yourself as well; that runs on an appointment and costs you nothing, at Zeeburgerpad in Amsterdam. A narrow set still goes in a large van. After your rental period we come and collect it, and you make sure the parts lie dismantled and stacked beside the path where the driver can take them without a detour.

You are working on a platform in load class 3 under EN 1004, which means 200 kg of capacity per square metre. On pruning work you come nowhere near it: you, a pair of shears and a bucket of shoots amount to little. What you do notice on a narrow pitch is imbalance. Lean out to one side to catch a branch and you feel it at once, and that is exactly the reason to stay inside the rails.

The fixed rules still hold, of course. Brake the wheels before you climb, never roll with anybody or any tool on the boards, and stop working when it blows hard. With a climbing plant that wind limit drops sooner than you expect, because a branch in leaf gives a tug the moment you let it go. At every new position check the four feet again before you go up the ladder and start the next bay.

What can really go wrong on this job sits in the frame and in what comes down. Tension wires and eye bolts often sit at chest height beside your guard rail and you catch a sleeve or a pair of shears on them in a moment. Look too at what lives in the green: nests in spring, wasps in late summer. And keep the ground below you clear, because a cut branch does not always fall where you expect. The rest of the arrangements are in the rules for working at height.