Removing a canopy? Choose the right scaffold.

A canopy projects sixty to a hundred centimetres from the wall, so your build ends up beside it and never underneath. That calls for a narrow base: the Altrex RS51 measures 75 cm across and still fits on a pavement where you want the front door to stay usable. With a wide frame of 135 cm you block half the footway, while on this job you would rather people walked past the feet while you are up there undoing bolts.

The deck is 245 cm long and you need that length. At 75 cm across two people work one behind the other rather than side by side, which is exactly right: one turns the bolts out, the other holds the panel and passes tools. Meanwhile your cordless driver, your spanner set and a tin for loose bolts sit at the far end of the floor, where you will not trip over them as you step backwards.

The MiTower drops out for this job, because it is a one person tower and here you are up there with two. So look at the narrow model when you hire and not simply at the smallest thing on offer. Keep in mind that the RS51 as a series carries on to 14.2 metres, while you order only the build that matches your canopy. Which parts belong to which height is broken down per build when you hire a mobile scaffold.

On this job you measure to the highest fixing and not to the underside of the canopy. Above a front door the top brackets often sit just under the first floor window sill, and sometimes tie rods run diagonally up to a point above that. That highest point decides your build. Look as well for a cover flashing or a strip of lead over the canopy that has to be prised off, because then you are another thirty centimetres higher than you thought.

The working height you order is the deck height with about 2 metres of reach added, since you stand on the deck yourself. With a canopy hanging at three to four metres that puts you in a build of six to eight metres, so that you stand with your hips level with the work instead of reaching up at it with straight arms. You notice that difference the moment a bolt has to be broken loose after twenty years and only gives way to your full body weight.

Pick too low and you end up pushing from underneath your own work, the worst possible start to a removal: no force and no view of what is coming loose above the canopy. If the pavement lies lower than the threshold, add that difference before you settle on a height. What such a build contains and how many parts come with it is set out on the eight metre working height page, floor room included.

With a canopy over the front door the tower stands nine times out of ten on the pavement or on a small forecourt. Measure that space before you reserve: you need the footprint plus the room the stabilisers take when they swing out. An outward opening door, a meter cupboard hatch, the neighbours' bikes and the council bin all have to pass or go round, because this job lasts longer than the morning you spend undoing bolts and the tower stays put for the days after.

Mind the level of the ground. A pavement usually falls away towards the road, and you take that difference up on the adjustable spindles until the tower stands plumb. On a gravel strip or in a border you lay firm boards under the wheels so nothing sinks at the moment the canopy comes free and the loading changes in one go. Loose slabs are better bedded down beforehand than left to shift under a finished build.

Think about the route the canopy takes downwards too. Under the build there has to be room to lay the panel down and later lift it into a trailer or a van, so keep planters and bikes away from it. If the tower stands partly on the public highway, ask the council whether anything needs arranging. How to get a build steady on a sloping footway is covered in the article on a mobile scaffold on uneven ground.

The releasing itself is usually a morning's work. Backing out bolts, catching the canopy, bringing it down and stripping the brackets from the wall takes two people about four hours, provided everything cooperates. Seized anchors, rusted through tie rods and a canopy built deeper into the brickwork than you could see from below stretch that out. So do not count on half a rental day; give the whole first day to the removal and to clearing what comes down with it.

Then comes the part people forget: closing the elevation again. Drilling or raking out the holes, pulling the plugs that stayed behind, filling with mortar or sealant and touching in to match the brickwork takes a second half day, and the filler still has to cure before paint goes over it. The complete job therefore means keeping the tower two to three days, that final day being your slack for the making good and for clearing away the rubble.

Such an extra day costs little at the reservation, because only the opening 24 hours carry the full charge. What matters more is not having the tower on the day you turn out to need it: leaving a half closed elevation because the set goes back at midday means hiring again later for the same patch of wall. Set your collection day a full day behind the day you expect to make the last brush stroke.

Each position gives you 245 cm of working width. If the canopy is wider than that, you will not get it off from one spot: you free one side, shift the build along and finish the other side afterwards. Plan that move deliberately, because you do not want to be standing halfway through with a half released canopy over your head working out what comes next. Decide beforehand which fixing goes last and say it out loud to each other, since two people expecting different things is the real risk here.

Weight is the true subject. A canopy of steel with glass, or one in concrete, weighs a great deal and does not simply get carried down. Work with a rope over a solid point, or let the panel travel down along the elevation while somebody below guides it. Never hang a load on the guard rail of the tower and do not let the canopy dangle against it either: the build is there to carry you and your tools, not to serve as a hoist.

Sequence is where a removal comes unstuck. Slacken every bolt one turn first and only then take them out one at a time, so nothing binds or tips without warning. Keep the small parts with you in a tub on the deck, because a bolt dropped above a front door is exactly the bolt you never find again. Anything you are not using lies flat against the toe board, so it cannot roll off while the two of you push and pull.

You get the tower as a complete set of parts, counted through, and you build it yourself. Booking runs until 15:00 on an ordinary working day; the set then comes round the next working day. Agree in advance where the frames and decks may be dropped: with a canopy on the street side that is often a narrow pavement, so stack them in the front garden or tight along the wall rather than across the path to the door.

You give two dates at the reservation, one for the delivery and one for taking the set away. What works well here is having it brought the day before the removal, so that you can start on the bolts first thing instead of building for an hour while your helper stands waiting. The collection day you place after the moment the elevation is closed and the paint has dried, so you never have to choose between finishing and striking.

Allow roughly an hour to build at this height with two people, the same two who will bring the canopy down. When you are done you take the tower apart again and lay the parts back where they were agreed, after which we collect them on the day you picked. So we come past twice, and in the days between you set the pace of the job yourself. Nobody is waiting for you to get the last bracket out.

Load class 3 under EN 1004 allows 200 kg on each square metre of the floor you are standing on. Two people with their tools sit well inside that, but the canopy itself does not belong in the sum: it goes down, not onto the floor as well. So do not park heavy parts you have stripped off on the deck to take with you later, but bring them down before you start on the next set of fixings. That keeps the floor clear and your head on the work.

Brakes on the wheels and stabilisers swung wide before either of you climbs up. Moving it with somebody aboard is out, including that last stretch across to the other side of the canopy. When it blows hard you postpone the releasing: a panel that starts acting as a sail once it hangs half free is the most dangerous thing on this job. Choose a still morning over a quick one, even if the tower then stands outside your house a day longer.

Below you hangs a front door that people walk through. Close that side off, string a tape or set a cone, and warn the household that the door is out of use at the moment the canopy comes free. After the last bolt, run your hand along the wall to feel whether sharp anchor stubs are sticking out for somebody to catch themselves on later, and file or bend them flat straight away. Two minutes up there saves a lot of trouble below.