Plumbing work? Choose the right scaffold.

Pipes, drains and zinc work sit almost always where the house is hardest to reach: the path between two houses, the corner behind the shed, the strip along the bay. That is why the Altrex RS51 is the logical model here, at a width of 75 cm. That model can go a good deal higher than you need now, but you simply build it up with fewer parts. Which versions exist otherwise you see in the overview of mobile scaffolds for hire.

On the deck what counts most in plumbing work is somewhere to put things. A pair of tin snips, a folding clamp, a soldering iron, a reel of solder, a length of pipe cut to size: all of it is up there at once and you do not want to hunt for it. The 245 cm platform length offers room for that, as long as you keep everything to one side and leave the other side free to work. Lay heavy material against an upright and never loose in the middle of the deck.

Working with two of you, or taking a whole sheet of zinc or a long roll of lead up, makes the 135 cm RS52 more comfortable. That extra deck width does mean getting it through the same gateway, and that is exactly where this job often comes unstuck. Measure that gap with a tape, and look while you are at it for a projecting downpipe or a window sill halfway along the path. A summary of the dimensions shows what both models ask for in space.

Find the highest point of your job first. On this work that is usually where the downpipe meets the gutter, the topmost bracket or the edge where the lead runs under the tiles. On an ordinary family house that sits somewhere between three and four metres, which puts you on a build with 4.2 to 6.2 metres of reach. What exists in that range is set out clearly at six metres of reach, which is worth reading before you book.

Those figures are not a platform height. Your deck ends up at roughly 2.2 to 4.2 metres and on top of that you count a shade under 2 metres of reach, because that is how far your hands get above the deck. For plumbing work you actually want to stand a little lower than you would for painting: you would rather have the connection at chest height than over your head, because otherwise you cannot put any force on grips, a folding iron or a pipe cutter.

Choosing too high is therefore just as awkward here as choosing too low. Stand half a metre too high and you spend the whole day bent forward over the guardrail towards your work, and nobody keeps that up for an afternoon. Come up short and you work with stretched arms and cannot see what you are doing. So count back from the height your hands want to be at, and count from the ground where the wheels land. On a connection at ground floor level you often stay under five metres.

The spot is usually fixed on this job, because you have to be at the pipe or the drain and that sits where it sits. Often that is a side path barely a metre and a half wide, with a fence on the other side. Measure that width and bear in mind that the stabilisers stick out on both sides. If the path is a dead end, work out how you get the parts along it before the first upright goes up.

Underfoot there are surprisingly many obstacles in plumbing work. An inspection chamber where the soil stack comes out, a gully, an outside tap with a slab round it, a crawl space vent. A stabiliser resting on a manhole cover is resting on something that can tip, so shift the build half a metre instead. Where the paving falls away from the facade you correct that as you build; how to go about it is at setting up on a sloping surface.

Finally set aside a place for your gas bottle or soldering set, and do that at ground level. It does not belong on your deck but beside the build on a flat patch, with the hose running up in a generous curve and not tight against an upright. Make sure you can shut it off there without climbing up first. Clear that zone of cardboard, cloths and dry planting as well, because sparks and drips of solder come down exactly there.

The real work on a connection is often done in half a day, but a great deal hangs around it. Shutting off the water and draining down, taking out the old work, offering up, soldering or folding, putting it back, refilling and leaving it a while to see whether it stays dry. Meet a surprise along the way, such as a rotted bracket or a pipe that runs differently from how you thought, and half a day has gone. For an average job on the facade you therefore hire one to two days.

There are waiting moments in it as well that you cannot speed up. A glued joint has to cure before you put pressure on it, a soldered seam has to cool before you load it, and you only do a leak check once everything is back under pressure. Rain plays a part too: wet zinc and a wet torch go badly together, and you do not want to handle hot parts on a slippery platform. So book a day extra rather than having to stop with the pipe open.

That extra day hardly shows in the rental price. In your period only the opening 24 hours carry the whole rate; on every day you add to your period after that you get 95% off. A second order for the same job, on the other hand, costs the full rate again plus a run. Anyone taking a roomy period also keeps the option of climbing back up the next day for a last check on the connection. How to make that judgement is at working out the number of rental days.

Unlike painting, you move very little here. You work on a point, or on a short line: the gutter outlet, a row of brackets, a connection at the through-wall fitting. With a deck of 245 cm you often stand across the whole width of that working area, so your tools lie at one end and the work happens at the other. Only when you drop from the gutter to ground level do you take a level off rather than rolling the build sideways.

Think carefully about what you take up in one go. A full tool box, a length of pipe, brackets, screws, the torch and a bucket to put old parts in: that is more weight than it looks and you do not want to go down for it three times. Haul heavy things up on a rope along the outside instead of carrying them up the ladder in your hand. That way you keep two hands for the rungs while you climb.

What people underestimate is the time the taking apart costs. Seized brackets, paint over a clamp band, a pipe stuck fast in the outlet: those are the minutes that eat your day, not the soldering itself. Count those minutes in, because they decide whether you are finished by the end of the day or have to leave the pipe open. If you follow on by renewing the whole downpipe, work from top to bottom and leave the build in place as long as you can.

What arrives with you is a counted package of loose parts: uprights, braces, deck boards, guardrails and wheels. Choose a corner for that stack in advance and think about the narrow route to the rear. On a side path you cannot lay the parts out beside one another, so leave them on the drive or at the street end and carry them through in batches. Think while you are at it about where the old pipe sections and brackets go while the job runs.

At booking you give two dates: a delivery date and a collection date. Beat 15:00 on a weekday with your order and the parts stand in the side path the following working day. For this trade that is welcome, because a leak or a connection that has come loose can rarely wait a week. Building up you arrange yourself, preferably together with somebody else, and the manual with the video that goes with it takes you calmly through the steps.

Finished and everything tested, you dismantle the build and stack the parts somewhere the driver can reach; we take them back with us. Leave no solder residue or sawn-off bits of pipe among them, because those do not count and only cause confusion while everything is tallied. What it costs to bring the set to your province and fetch it again is listed with VAT under rates for delivery, so nothing surfaces later on in your budget.

Every square metre of your deck takes 200 kg, the load class 3 that EN 1004 describes. In plumbing work you get closer to that than in painting, because a box of tools, a roll of lead and a second person add up quickly. Beyond that the standing agreements apply: wheels on the brake first and only then step aboard, no person and no material on board while you roll, and down you come as the wind picks up.

The risk at the top of the list here is fire. Working with a torch, lay a flame-resistant cloth behind your workpiece, keep an extinguisher within reach and make sure nothing beneath you can catch. A spark travels further than you think and can still be smouldering hours later in dry leaves or in insulation behind a panel. Walk the spot under your platform and the area round your gas bottle once more before you clear up.

Watch as well what is hot and what can fall. A freshly soldered length of pipe feels warm for a long time and burns straight through a plastic deck board or through your hose. Lay such pieces on a brick or in a metal tray, not loose on the deck. Keep the zone below free of people, because a pair of grips falling from 4 metres is dangerous. At the rules for working at height the rest is listed.