Installing bird protection? Choose the right scaffold.

Installing bird protection means handling long pieces. A comb filler runs a metre to a metre and a half, a roll of mesh will not steer with one hand, and you have a cordless drill, a box of screws and a pair of snips with you as well. That is the argument for hiring the RS52 at 135 cm wide: on that deck a strip can lie lengthways without sticking out past the guard rail. The choice between slim and broad is explained under the mobile scaffolds you can hire from us.

Going wide brings a second advantage here. Fitting a comb goes fastest with two people, one holding the strip true against the tile batten while the other drives the fixings. That only works if the pair of you can pass without anyone stepping backwards into a rail. Solar panels weigh on the choice as well, because there you work with clips and mesh strips hooked on one by one along the panel edge, and every piece of that has to be put down somewhere in between.

For a single short run above an extension the slim 75 cm version will serve, particularly where the route round the back goes through a narrow gate. Reckon then on repositioning more often and on carrying materials up in smaller loads. Working a complete roof edge on a terraced house, the wide tower from the fleet wins at every position, even though it costs you a few extra components to carry. Both are compared under the narrow and wide tower side by side.

The height you need hangs on where the protection goes. Comb filler sits beneath the lowest course of tiles, so you have to come just above the gutter. Where the protection belongs at solar panels, you are working at the edge of the panel field, and that often lies a good deal further up the roof slope. On a terraced house of two or three storeys you therefore hire a reach of 8 to 12 metres, depending on how far the panels run towards the ridge.

Turn that height into a platform height before you book. From the deck you are standing on, your arms still bridge roughly 2 metres, so subtract that from your highest fixing point. If a clip sits at nine metres, you want to be standing at seven. Measure from the garden, the footway or the drive the castors land on, because a terrace higher than the path gives a false starting point and leaves you one setting short. If in doubt, look at a ten metre working height.

Anyone who builds too low feels it in the wrists. To get a comb square under the tiles you have to line it up at eye level; standing lower means screwing above your head, the strip drifts out of true and the pins press unevenly against the tile. With panels it is more direct still: fail to reach the top edge of the panel and that side stays open, and the pigeons simply creep in underneath it again the following week.

Installing bird protection nearly always runs the full width of a roof slope, so you take the tower along the whole elevation with you. So do not look at a single standing spot but at a strip: is it level over the full length, does the same surface run all the way, and can you travel along it without a detour? An extension halfway down, a conservatory or a shed built against the wall will sometimes force you to tackle part of the run from the other side of the house.

The four stabilisers have to be braced out afresh at every position, so along that whole strip you need a couple of metres of clear width. Garden paving and a drive are fine; a border, bark chippings and grass that softens after rain are not. Look at what is under the grass as well: a chamber, a gravel soakaway or a freshly laid cable duct will not carry the weight of an extended leg. Levelling out a step is covered in the notes on an uneven standing surface.

If the solar panels sit on the rear slope, the whole job moves to the back garden. Measure the gate and the path first in that case, because the components have to go through in one go. Working at the street side, keep a walking route free beside the build and ask your council whether the pavement in your road may be used. Fence off the strip below while you are up there, since a snipped off piece of mesh is razor sharp and light enough to blow anywhere.

Reckon this job in metres of roof edge rather than in hours. Each position covers around two metres, so a ten metre elevation already means shifting, bracing and climbing five times over. For the front of a terraced house that adds up to one or two days; take in front and back, or add a strip along the solar panels, and you are on three to five hire days. Most of that time goes not on driving screws but on moving and resetting the build.

There are interruptions you have no control over as well. If an occupied nest still sits behind the spot you mean to close, the protection cannot simply go over the top of it: that cavity stays open until the nest is empty. That order of work is set out on the page about the removal of old nests from a roof edge. The weather sets your pace too, because nobody wants to be snipping and screwing along an edge in wet gloves, and a comb will not sit square on a greasy tile.

All of which argues for booking on the generous side. The bill does not run in step with the days: the opening period alone is charged at the full figure, while each day that follows has 95 per cent lifted off it. Two days of slack therefore cost you far less than a second delivery, which is what you are facing the moment the job overruns. What a longer period does to your total is set out on the overview of hire rates.

Working off boards 245 cm long, one position takes you along a little over two metres of edge, so an average frontage runs to five standing spots or so. Take up only the combs that fit inside that stretch each time. The principle behind installing bird protection stays the same throughout: you keep birds out without sealing the roof, because a tiled roof has to breathe underneath, and closing the space at the gutter completely leaves moisture sitting in the sarking boards.

Set the comb under the first course of tiles with the pins against the underside of the tile, and fix it with rustproof screws. A galvanised screw in a damp roof edge rusts loose within a few seasons and then your whole strip is left flapping on one fixing. So choose stainless screws, or clips that grip around the tile batten, and work through from one end so that the combs overlap each other without leaving a gap between two lengths.

Open perpends in the wall want small grilles rather than sealant, and those sit lower down, roughly at the level of your second platform rather than at the roof edge. That is worth knowing before you book, because it means two deck heights at one standing position instead of one. Panels are the opposite case: the mesh runs along all four edges of the panel field, so you keep repositioning until the last side is closed, and one side left open undoes the rest.

What is handed over on delivery are loose parts, every one of them counted, and putting them together is your task rather than the driver's. Have the reservation confirmed before 15:00 on a weekday and those parts are waiting for you on the next working day, with both the delivery date and the collection date chosen by you. On a job that runs along a long roof edge it is sensible to have the delivery a day before you start, so you begin with a complete build.

Nominate an unloading corner that is out of the way. The components take up roughly the footprint of a car, and you do not want them lying in the middle of the strip along which the tower has to travel. Where the work is in the back garden, ask whether the load can go down close to the gate, because every metre of carrying counts double with a set this size. We come back for the complete set afterwards; you make sure everything is dismantled and gathered on the spot you gave us.

Let the wind have a say in your dates. Installing bird protection means handling long, light pieces at height, and a comb filler catches wind like a sail. A day of hard gusts produces crooked strips and a great deal of fuss, so it is better to move things back. You name the collection day for the hired tower yourself, so pushing everything back by twenty four hours is nearly always workable, as long as we hear about it before the collection round is planned.

Heavy this work is not: a comb and a cordless drill together weigh less than a bucket. Load class 3 within EN 1004 rates the deck you stand on at 200 kg for every square metre, so the loading is never what limits you here. The attention belongs somewhere else. You reach sideways past the guard rail again and again to line a strip up or to place a screw just beyond your span, and it is precisely that movement that costs people their balance.

The castors go on the brake before anyone climbs, and they stay locked until the last person is down. A build with tools or a person still on it does not get moved, however short the two metres to the next strip. When the wind is strong you stop the work altogether: at ten metres along an open roof edge a gust takes hold of you easily, and with half a comb in your hands there is nothing left to hold on with.

The hazards that go with this particular job are small and sharp. Snipped mesh and loose pins cut straight through a glove, and screws laid down on the deck roll towards the edge. Use a belt pouch or a magnetic dish, and leave nothing at all lying loose on the boards. If you are working over a terrace or a path, fence it off, because a piece of mesh falling ten metres is not something you want anybody standing under.