Chimney work? Choose the right scaffold.

While you still do not know what has to happen, you carry more up than on a job that is pinned down: something to look with, something to clean with, and often material as well in case it turns out to be simple. That argues for the wide Altrex RS52, 135 cm across the boards with a platform 245 cm long. Hiring a tower for chimney work means, in practice, hiring the room to make decisions at height rather than on the ground.

For a tight route to the back there is the RS51, which passes almost anywhere at 75 cm. You give up working room for that, and you notice it the moment two people are standing up top or a bucket joins them. So pace out the narrowest pinch on your route first, with a tape rather than by eye, and only then decide on the width of the build you hire. All the sizes and reaches sit together on the page about towers available for hire, with the achievable builds beside each model.

The other models drop out for a head on a roof. The RS44 room scaffold takes you 3 to 4 metres up and belongs indoors, being narrow enough from roughly 70 cm to be wheeled through an internal doorway. A MiTower is a one person build stopping at 6.2 metres, which falls short of a two storey roof however handy it may be elsewhere. Which leaves the RS52, buildable as a model to 14.2 metres, so even a taller house than average is covered without anyone having to improvise.

The convenient thing about chimney work is that the measuring point never changes, whatever the job turns into: the topmost brick of the head. Measure to that and your build is right whether you are looking, pointing, fitting a cap or checking lead. On an average mid terrace that gives a working height of 8.2 to 12.2 metres, with the boards at a little over 6 to a little over 10 metres. The gap is reach: a platform height plus about 2 metres is what you can work to.

Those figures jump in steps because a tower grows by whole lifts of roughly two metres at a time. So you do not pick nine and a half metres exactly, you pick the next build above it. If in doubt take the taller one, because from a deck set too low you can look but not work, and you discover that only once it stands. The page of working heights gives the platform height for each build.

Start measuring on the ground where the wheels will end up, not on your threshold. A back garden often lies below the level of the street, and on a corner house the ground can differ from one side of the building to the other. If you do not know how tall the head is, stand opposite and compare it with a second floor window or with the dormer beside it. Better to have a lift in hand than to abandon a job halfway up because you cannot quite reach the top course.

Where the head sits on the roof decides whether a tower is the right tool at all. If the chimney rises out of the flank wall or close to the roof edge, the build goes along that elevation and you work from the boards towards it. If it stands in the middle of a pitched slope, or right on the ridge of a deep house, a stretch of roof lies between you and the head that you may not walk on. Check that point before you reserve anything, because it decides whether hiring is worthwhile.

Under the tower belongs firm, level ground with room for the four stabilisers. Paving, a drive or well compacted gravel will do the job; a lawn that gives way after a wet week will not. Watch for level changes between terrace and garden, and for everything built against the wall: a conservatory, a rear extension, a bike store or a dense hedge you cannot simply remove. Obstacles of that sort sometimes mean building on the far side of the house altogether, with a longer carry between the tower and your materials.

If the build ends up in the street the council has a say: many streets allow a parking bay or part of the footway to be used, but not without telling anyone first. Arrange that well before the delivery date, especially in a busy area where every space is already taken by somebody. Keep the zone under the boards clear as well, because on almost any chimney work something eventually comes down, whether grit, a washer or a piece of old sealant.

On a job you cannot yet describe, reserve a stretch rather than a day. Begin with a half day for the build and an hour to study the head properly; only after that do you know whether an afternoon will cover the lot or whether materials have to be ordered in first. For most chimney work practice lands on two to four days, in which waiting for mortar, sealant or an ordered cap counts every bit as much as the work on the head itself.

That approach stays affordable because full charge falls on the opening day and night alone, with 95 per cent off every further hire day that follows it. Setting a generous period therefore costs very little, whereas ordering twice means paying twice for the journey and putting the tower up twice, with everything that involves. What a build comes to per model and height appears at the tariffs for hire, VAT included and with nothing surfacing afterwards.

Where you already know what is wrong, the planning can be sharper. Chopping out and refilling joints carries a different duration from bolting a cap down, and simply assessing a head costs a fraction of either. The page on repairing a chimney from a tower names what is realistic step by step, including the curing time you cannot make up. Plan those days loosely rather than tightly, and the final day of the hire stays a calm one instead of a rushed one.

From the boards you work on everything you can touch from the roof edge: the brickwork of the head, the joints, the flaunching, the cap and the lead abutment around the base, provided it is on your side. Inspecting the head, photographing it and taking dimensions off it are all perfectly possible from there as well. That is exactly why many people hire for a day before ringing a builder: with figures and pictures a conversation about the head becomes far more concrete and frequently cheaper.

What you do not do is step off the deck onto the roof slope to gain the last metre. Roof tiles are not made to carry your weight and a pitch is not a walkway, however short the distance across it looks. Just as firmly, you never tie the tower to the chimney or pull yourself up on it, because a head that needs attention is by definition not to be trusted. There is more on that under a mobile tower and a pitched roof.

If part of the work remains out of reach from below, that is the signal that this one calls for other equipment. We supply no facade scaffolds, nothing in system scaffolding and no cherry pickers, so at that point you look elsewhere. Worth knowing, though: for the yearly once over of a head near the roof edge the build is normally ample. The page on inspecting a chimney from a tower goes through it part by part.

The tower arrives in pieces, counted and complete, and putting it together afterwards is done with the manual open and the assembly video within reach. Two people take a half day over that at these heights, and that half day is planned apart from the work on the head. Get the order in before 15:00, on a day that we work, and everything waits on your kerb or your drive the working day after.

Which day the delivery happens and when the set goes back you enter while booking, and for chimney work that choice hangs mostly on the weather. Rain barely hinders judging a head, but mortar, sealant and paint want dry conditions, and at 12 metres it always blows harder than down in the garden. So look further than a day ahead when you pick dates, and put your start at the beginning of a settled spell rather than at the tail end of one.

Afterwards you take the tower apart, gather the components and we come to collect them; building and stripping are not things we do for you. The cost of the journey is fixed per province and shown with VAT at what the delivery costs per province, so it goes into your budget straight away. Anyone arriving with a trailer can take a set away free of charge from Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam, by appointment, provided the whole lot fits into a single run.

The decking here is EN 1004 material in class 3, which puts the ceiling at 200 kg for a square metre. The trap on this kind of job is taking everything up because you are unsure: tools, a bag of mortar, a cap, a bucket of water and a second person who also has to stand somewhere. Make two trips rather than one, and keep enough of the deck free that you can turn round on it without kicking into anything.

At this height wind counts for more than it does on wall work lower down. Above the roof edge there is nearly always more of it than there is down in the garden, and anything with a flat face moves with it, from a cap to a sheet you happened to put down. Brake the wheels before you climb, never shift the build with a person or anything else on it, and walk round the stabilisers after each move to see that all four touch down again.

Watch what is going on beneath you as well. On work at a head something comes down sooner or later, and the people walking past have no idea. Cordon the area off, tell the neighbours what is happening, and do not work above a shared path without somebody keeping an eye on it or a length of tape across the entrance. The general requirements for working at height sit in the knowledge base with what to postpone in wind and rain.