Staining decking? Choose the right scaffold.

For this work you end up at the Altrex Mi Tower, a slim 75 cm tower meant for a single user. Staining decking is a solo job anyway, since two people on the same run of edge keep meeting and pull each other's wet band open again. The Mi Tower is also light enough to shift along the terrace on your own, and you will do that more often than you expect beforehand. Every version sits in the hire range for this compact tower.

What goes up with you is modest: a tin of stain, a block brush, a sanding sponge, a roll of tape and a rag in your jacket pocket. All of that fits easily on a platform measuring 245 cm, a length that decides how many metres of edge you finish from one position. The width of 75 cm matters more, because it takes you through a garden gate, along a fence and between the border and the terrace without sacrificing your planting or unscrewing a fence panel.

A wider mobile scaffold adds little here. You are not carrying tubs or sheets up, and you need no second pair of hands on the platform, so the extra components mostly mean more lugging through the garden. Around a large roof terrace it can be different: with dozens of metres of edge you may prefer to hire a mobile scaffold with a longer deck and reposition less often. Which of the two answers better here is weighed up in the comparison of both hire models.

Measure to the highest point you still intend to stain, which is usually the top of the upstand running round the deck. If the terrace sits on the first floor or on top of an extension, that edge is soon three to four metres above the grass. Add the room you need to stand at it comfortably and the answer lands in the band of 4 to 6 metres, measured as working height, even where the decking sits a little above the floor level indoors.

In practice that means a deck somewhere between two and four metres up, since your brush reaches roughly 2 metres above the platform height you order. Your nought point lies at the castors down in the garden, not at the decking you will later kneel on. A garden that falls away from the house, or a sunken border along the wall, makes that difference larger than the eye suggests. Measure it with a tape from the grass rather than guessing it from the terrace, and note the figure down before you book the hire.

Order a build that is too low and you stain the top edge with a stretched arm and never see the underside of the joists at all. That is exactly where the greying and the rot start, because moisture lingers there longer than on the walking surface. Take one step more rather than one less, certainly where the joists of your terrace run on under the boards. What a build of six metres involves and how high a first floor sits are both set out separately.

On this job the set-up ends up in the middle of the garden, which is a different story altogether from a tower on a pavement of setts. Grass sinks under the castors after a single wet day, molehills and tree roots make the ground uneven, and a border stays soft to half a metre down. So lay stout planks or track mats under the feet, and check the set-up again every single time you have moved it a few metres along the terrace.

Around the base you need clearance for the stabilisers, which stand out at an angle. In a garden they collide with all sorts: the water butt under the downpipe, a barbecue, garden chairs, a trampoline or the low wall of a raised planter. Put that lot further away rather than closer, and take the water butt off its stand if it sits under the run. Clear the ground along the whole length you intend to work, because while staining decking you keep shifting a stage further along the edge of the boards.

Look at what hangs above you as well. A terrace on the first floor often has a canopy, an awning or an overhanging roof edge, and those sit precisely at the height where you will be standing while staining decking along that side. That decides how close to the wall you can bring the set-up, whether the top deck still fits underneath and how far you have to reach outwards. Getting a tower level on soft or sloping ground is explained in the piece about uneven ground.

For this job you count on two to three hire days. Putting the stain on is quickly done, but the preparation sets your timetable: first the grey comes off with a timber cleaner or grey remover, then you rinse it down, and after that the wood has to dry right through. Damp timber takes no stain, and a deck that looks dry can still be wet underneath. That drying spell is exactly why you need the tower longer than the hours you spend with a brush.

So run a moisture test before you start. Tape a piece of clear foil onto the boards, leave it a few hours and see whether condensation appears on the underside. If the plastic stays dry, the brush can go in. If you see droplets against it, you wait another day and test again. Putting two coats on adds a further drying period in between, and the length of that is decided by the product rather than by your diary.

The way the rate is built up makes such waiting affordable. The whole figure is charged once, over the first 24 hours; after that each further hire day comes in at 95 per cent less. A spare day held back for an unexpected shower therefore costs you almost nothing extra. Set the period too tight and you stand there with a half-treated edge waiting on the collection round. Amounts per model are shown on the page listing hire rates.

Stain goes on one board at a time and over its full length, from one end to the other. Break off halfway to move your set-up and the edge of your band dries out, leaving that overlap visible in the timber as a stripe for good. So look first at which boards fall within your reach and finish them completely before you shift the tower a stretch. The deck length of 245 cm gives you a run of edge per position that you can cover without stretching.

Choose a product that soaks into the wood instead of forming a skin on top. Decking is a horizontal surface where water stands and where you also walk, and a film coat comes away there in flakes within a season. A penetrating stain fades rather than letting go, which means that the next time round you only have to clean the boards and feed them again, without sanding the whole deck back to bare timber first. That difference alone can save you a hire day.

From the platform you pick up the parts that seem not to matter from above: the outer face of the upstand, the cut ends of every board and the joists of the structure. Those end grains drink moisture like a straw, so give them a second pass with the brush without hurrying. Do not work in full sun, because the stain then flashes off too fast and leaves you with a patchy surface that never evens out afterwards.

The date the tower arrives and the date it leaves again are yours to pick when you reserve. Book on a working day with 15:00 as the cut-off and the parts travel out on the next working day. For this job you aim the drop-off at the start of a dry spell: a day of cleaning first, then drying, and only then the stain. A wet week at the beginning costs you two days of your period straight away, and that loss is rarely made up later.

What you receive is a set of separate parts, counted in advance, which you put up yourself. A manual comes with it and the steps are shown in a video as well, which suits this model, since the whole thing is designed so that one person can raise it alone. Agree where the bundles may be set down. In a back garden that is usually the terrace or the path beside the shed, because dragging them over wet grass leaves marks for a season.

Once the last board is done you take the tower down and lay everything back on the agreed spot in the garden, after which we come for it on the day you chose. There is no driving about for you. If you live nearby and have transport, the set can also be picked up at no cost from Zeeburgerpad 89 in Amsterdam, once a slot is agreed. With this light model the whole lot usually fits in the back of a van.

The deck takes 200 kg per square metre, which is the starting point of load class 3 as EN 1004 describes it. Staining decking never comes close to that limit, since only one person is up there with a tin and a bit of small kit. More to the point, this model is intended for one user: do not let anybody climb up with you to lend a hand, not even for that awkward stretch of edge behind the downpipe where two pairs of arms seem useful.

Close the wheel brake before you go up and leave it closed for as long as you are working aloft, including between two boards. You move the tower with an empty deck, so take your tin and your brush down first before shifting the set-up a stretch. In strong wind you stop staining, because leaves and dust blow into your wet band. You also have less to hold on to at this height than you would think from the ground.

On this job watch spilt stain under your feet above all. A drop on the deck of your scaffold or on the boards is slippery as grease the moment you tread on it, and you find that out at the wrong moment. Work with a rag within reach and wipe spatters away at once, including any on the rungs of the ladder. Think about who walks below you too: children and pets like to come and look, right under the edge you are treating.