Installing a flagpole? Choose the right scaffold.

For installing a flagpole on a wall you take the RS52 out of the Altrex programme, the wide version measuring 135 cm across. You want that width because two people share the deck: one holding and steering the section, one turning the bolts. On a narrow frame you are in each other's way at every movement, and that is exactly the moment a pole of several metres gets away from you. The versions stand side by side in the hire range of mobile scaffolds.

What travels up with you asks for that deck as well. A hammer drill fitted with a long masonry bit, anchors in their box, the brackets, a spirit level, spanners and the cordage for the halyard all have to lie within reach without you stepping over them. A platform barely wider than your shoulders works against you there. The deck length of 245 cm helps too: on it you can lay the pole down at an angle while marking the first bracket hole, rather than leaning it against the wall.

A narrow RS51 is conceivable for a short, light pole clamped to a single wall bracket. As soon as the section is taller than a person and a flag that catches wind goes on the end, that extra width stops being a luxury. The wide version also makes two of you far calmer while hauling on a long profile, and calm hands are what keep a bracket square. What you may put on a deck and how to spread it is explained in the article on loading and weight.

Before you hire a mobile scaffold, settle where the upper bracket goes, because it sits higher than people estimate. A wall-mounted pole is held by two brackets set well apart, because otherwise the wind gets too much leverage on the section and the lower fixing starts to work loose. On a three-storey house or a commercial unit that upper fixing therefore lands at seven or eight metres soon enough. Add the length of pole you still want to inspect and you arrive at 8 to 12 metres.

That figure translates into the build you order. Put the deck between six and ten metres and your hands reach roughly 2 metres above it, which is the height at which you can genuinely drill and tighten; platform height plus that reach is the working height you book. Look at the ground under the castors too. A drive that falls away towards the road, or a raised step at the entrance, moves your nought point by half a metre, and up top that is exactly the margin you were relying on.

Order too low and you never get the upper bracket level. You end up drilling with arms stretched overhead, the hole runs off at an angle, and the pole finishes visibly out of plumb against the line of the wall. That is obvious from the pavement. Too short a build also means you cannot check the top bolt once the pole is hanging in it. Which components belong together is set out in the description of a ten metre build.

When installing a flagpole you settle the swing circle first and the standing position second. A flag turns around the pole and throws out a long way in wind, so the arc the cloth describes has to be clear of the roof edge, the gutter, the downpipe, an outside light, next door's branch and the wall itself. Move the pole a metre sideways for that and the site of your set-up simply moves with it, so you look again at what is lying or standing there.

Under that spot you want flat, load-bearing ground: setts, slabs, tarmac or a concrete drive. The stabilisers reach out at an angle and demand more room on every side than the frame itself, certainly on a build of this height. If part of the set-up stands on the pavement or in a parking bay, ask beforehand what your council allows in that street and keep a walking route open for pedestrians. On a building beside a busy road you arrange all of that in advance.

Look at what sits between the wall and your castors as well. A low hedge, a stepped porch to the front door, cycle stands, a lamp post or a strip of loose gravel all stop the set-up coming tight against the brickwork. That matters here, because the drill has to meet the stone square on and you want to line the pole up with the face of the building. Preparing a booking goes easiest with the checklist for a scaffold hire beside you.

The fitting itself is a day's work, yet hardly anyone manages with one day. On the first day the parts arrive, you build the set-up and you mark out the brackets. Drilling, setting the anchors and hanging the pole follow after that. Reckon on two hire days, then, and on three when you do not know the wall or when the work runs higher than on an ordinary house. Measuring the swing circle is best done before the delivery lands on your pavement.

Between those steps sits waiting time you cannot shorten. Chemical anchors have to cure before you hang a pole with a flag on it, and how long that takes differs per brand and is printed on the cartridge in your hand. Wind is a genuine spoiler here as well: you bring a pole upright on a still morning, not in a stiff breeze, however neatly your planning worked out. A day's postponement is then the only sensible decision.

Luckily the hire makes that postponement cheap. Only the first 24 hours are billed at the standard figure, while a reduction of 95 per cent runs on every day from the second onwards, so waiting for calm weather costs almost nothing. Booking tight is the expensive option: the pole hangs half fitted and the van is already outside to take everything back. It is worth adding that spare day when installing a flagpole in an exposed spot. Rates per version are listed on the page with hire rates.

Installing a flagpole starts on the deck: 135 cm wide and 245 cm long, room enough to lay the pole down at an angle first. From that position one of you marks the holes while the other keeps the section in place, which spares you the fiddling that comes with a pole sliding down the brickwork. If you are working with a two-part pole, join the sections up on the deck itself, because coupling them at ground level leaves you with an assembly you can no longer lift.

Put your holes in the stone itself and keep clear of the joints. Mortar is softer than brick, it crumbles under the hammer action and it never gives an anchor the grip that a pole with a flag on it demands. So mark the holes in the middle of a brick, hold the drill square to the face, and blow the dust out before the anchor goes in. Check with the level that both brackets sit on one line before the pole is hung, working square from the deck rather than leaning out.

Thread the halyard through the pulley at the head before the pole comes upright. Once the section is standing, your hands will not reach that pulley again, not even from this deck. Lift the pole with two of you, let the foot drop into the lower bracket and tilt it towards the wall in one calm movement. Only when both bolts are tight do you let go. Make that final check standing on the deck rather than leaning over the guardrail.

When you reserve, you decide yourself which day the scaffold pulls up and which day it disappears again. That keeps the timing in your own hands. Orders confirmed on a working day before 15:00 join the delivery round on the next working day. For installing a flagpole that is handy, because you can tie your delivery date to a spell with little wind. It also means the pole and the anchors can be in the house before the parts appear on the pavement.

What arrives is a counted set of separate components, which you turn into a scaffold yourself. A manual comes with it and the assembly order is shown step by step in the video, so experience as a scaffolder is not required. With two of you, a build heading towards ten metres keeps you busy for a while, so start early in the day. Point out in advance where the bundles may lie, because that is a substantial stack of tubes and decks.

Once the pole stands true you take the set-up apart and put everything back in the same place, stacked as it was unloaded. We come for it on the day you picked when hiring, so there is nothing to return yourself and no trip across town. If hoisting the first flag shows that the upper bracket still needs adjusting, it is better to move that collection day than to set the whole thing up again a fortnight later. That saves you a second booking altogether.

These towers fall in load class 3, the category out of EN 1004 that stands for 200 kg on each square metre of deck. On this job two people are up there with a hammer drill, a case of anchors and a pole, so you come nearer that limit than on most other work. Spread the weight over the full deck for that reason, and do not let both of you rest the pole on the same board at the same moment.

The wheel brake goes on before the first person climbs up, and it stays on for as long as anyone is working above. Moving the set-up with tools or people aboard does not happen, so clear the deck first. In strong wind you stop this work, because a pole of several metres acts like a sail the moment you tilt it. A half-hoisted flag can pull hard on the line as well, leaving you correcting at height with a taut rope in your hands.

Watch what is going on beneath you too. Drilling sends grit down, and a spanner slipping out of a glove picks up serious speed from ten metres. Fence the area under the set-up with tape or cones, certainly when installing a flagpole beside a street or near an entrance where people pass all day. Give somebody at ground level the job of keeping passers-by back while the pole goes up and the bolts are still loose.