Removing windows? Choose the right scaffold.

This work lands you on the RS51, a slim tower of 75 cm built to a working height anywhere between 4.2 and 14.2 metres. Working in pairs needs no broad deck, because the two of you stand one behind the other rather than shoulder to shoulder: one holds the sash while the other backs out the screws. What you do want is a width that passes a gateway and squeezes past a shed. You can compare the whole range on the page covering the rolling towers in our hire fleet.

The dimension that really earns its keep here is the platform length of 245 cm. A freed sash lies flat on it with one edge against the guard rail while you undo the second leaf of the same frame. Without that space you stand holding glass under your arm, waiting for somebody below to be ready. Put an old blanket or a sheet of bubble wrap down first, so the glass does not grind across the decking. Two leaves lying up there at once blocks the space you need to move your feet.

For sliding sashes, for leaves over two metres, or where three of you work at once, it pays to look at the wider RS52 at 135 cm. You give up some agility in exchange, and along the narrow side passage of a terraced house it will not follow you round to the back. For one leaf on the ground floor there is no reason to hire a mobile scaffold at all, since a pair of trestles reaches that comfortably. If the sizing is unclear, the overview of dimensions by model settles the question quickly.

What you have to reach is the top hinge of the highest leaf coming out, not the eaves and not the gutter. On a house of two storeys that hinge sits somewhere around four to six metres, which puts you at a working height of 6 to 8 metres. Translate that into the build before you order: your platform ends up at the working height less roughly 2 metres of reach, so between four and six metres above the pavement. Book the hire on that figure and not on the height of the roof.

On removal work you pitch that figure differently from decorating. You want the middle of the leaf hanging at about chest level, because that is where your hands grip it and where your back carries it. Build half a metre short and you are lifting a heavy sash out of the frame above your own head, which is precisely the moment people lose hold of it. Come out too high and instead you are bending over the rail with glass in your hands.

Your tape starts on whatever the castors will be standing on. A back garden a step below the terrace drops your whole build, and with two leaves above one another that shortfall counts twice over. In such a case take the next section up, since nobody makes you stand on the top deck and half a metre short buys you a day of discomfort. That half metre decides where your hands meet the leaf. For a picture of which stand suits which storey, see the page on windows at second floor level.

For removing windows you need two strips of ground below the opening: one for the stand with its stabilisers, and one for wherever the leaf is going to end up. Set out a pair of trestles with a blanket over them, or lay a few boards across the paving. A sash propped against the wall goes over the first time somebody walks past it. On soft going, slip levelling plates under the castors, because a base that sinks while a heavy leaf rests on the deck will start to shift.

Then look at what sits between you and the frame. A window ledge crowded with pots, a single storey extension, a downpipe or a satellite dish on the brickwork all decide how close you can get. You want to draw the leaf straight towards you rather than twist it round an obstacle, since that turn is exactly where the grip goes. Clear those things away before the driver arrives and check the hired stand fits between the boundary and the wall with its stabilisers out.

Finally, think about the carry. Leaves have to go from the garden to the van, the skip or the workshop, and with glass under your arm you want no step, no gravel path and no loose slabs on the way. Lay boards over the soft stretch if need be and wedge the gate open, because a door swinging shut while both hands are full is a problem in itself. Taking up a difference in level under the castors is described in the guidance on ground that slopes away.

Undoing a leaf goes quicker than people expect; closing the hole does not. Allow half an hour per opening for hinges and ironmongery, then another half hour to cut a board to size and screw it into the rebate. Six windows fill a long working day that way. Want them carted off or delivered to a workshop as well, and you are at two days with the stand up. Add a rear elevation and it runs to three, particularly where the openings differ in size and every board has to be measured separately.

What governs your planning is not removing windows itself but what follows it. If the leaves go to a decorator or a stripping firm, your wall stands boarded for a week and you need the stand again later to rehang them. In that case book two separate spells rather than one long one, unless the difference is slight. Where the replacement leaves arrive the same week, simply keep the tower standing and save yourself a second build with all the carrying that involves.

The way charging works helps with that decision. One full day is settled at the outset and every day you attach to it carries a ninety five per cent reduction, so slack in the programme costs you next to nothing. Lose a day and you are waiting with a half opened wall until the van can come round again. So book the spare day when you reserve rather than ringing round for it later. What others reserve for work of this kind is described in the piece on a realistic number of hire days.

This is the part of removing windows you actually hire a tower for. Two people have to stand on one deck with a leaf between them, which means the castors are braked, the stabilisers are out and nobody is halfway up a rung. Set the stand so the hinge side is straight in front of you rather than round a corner, because a leaf you have to twist is a leaf you drop. Wedge the sash shut on its handle before the first pin comes out, and only then start.

Lowering it is the real work, and it is why you hired a platform rather than leaned a ladder against the wall. Nobody carries a leaf down rungs; that goes wrong sooner or later. Let it down along the guard rail while someone on the ground takes the weight, or use a rope looped at two points. Set it flat on the trestles straight away instead of leaning it against something upright. Agree the words you will use for stop and lower before the first leaf leaves the frame.

Close the hole the same afternoon. Cut a sheet of plywood to the daylight size of the rebate, screw it into the timber of the frame and tape the joint all round against driving rain. That costs a quarter of an hour per opening and saves a night lying awake through an autumn squall. If you go on to decorating the frames afterwards, a boarded opening also sands far more pleasantly than a hole your tools can drop through.

What lands on your pavement is a bundle of loose tubes, decks and guard rails that the driver counts before pulling away. Decide in advance where that stack may lie without blocking the spot the freed leaves are destined for, because mixing those two is how glass gets broken. Get the hire order in on any working day while it is still before 15:00, and the load leaves for your address on the next one. Which date suits you is your own entry, as is the day we come back round to fetch it.

Assembly is down to you, with the instructions beside you and a video showing which components go up in what order. Schedule it for the day before the removal, since you do not want to spend the first hour building and only then start on glass. Leave the stand parked at the first position as you finish, so the next morning begins with a climb rather than a shove. At this height two people need an hour at most. Count the parts against the delivery note as you build, so nothing is missing halfway up.

Once the leaves are back or the disposal is arranged, we drive out again to fetch everything. You take the stand apart and gather the components in one place where a van can get alongside them without mounting the kerb. Run down the parts list while you dismantle and nothing vanishes into the skip along with the offcuts. Fixed sums per province for the journey are shown under the cost of bringing and fetching, so that item slots straight into your budget.

Every deck is rated to carry 200 kg spread over a square metre, the load class 3 figure that goes with EN 1004, and here it is no abstract number. Two adults plus a leaf with sealed units plus a tool chest already sits close to it. So keep three people off one deck and never stack removed sashes on top of each other up there. One leaf laid flat and then taken straight down is the safe order of events, and it also keeps your working space clear for the next one.

The standard rules weigh more heavily where glass is involved. Castors locked before you step on, no moving the stand while a person or a sash is on the deck, and everything stops as soon as the wind gets up. That last one is no formality here, because a loose leaf behaves like a sail: it catches the gust and pulls you with it before you notice. At every new position, check the stabilisers are out again and the deck sits level, especially on garden paving.

The glass itself is the last consideration. Wear cut resistant gloves, keep the zone below you empty and cover the spot where the leaf comes down with something soft. If something does break, sweep it up at once rather than working round it all day. A helmet makes as much sense for the person on the ground as for you, since they stand directly beneath the glass. The remaining requirements sit on the page about the rules that apply at height.