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Scaffold ?

RogerS

RogerS

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Hi chaps...after some lateral thinking here.

The front of our house needs remedial work doing on the windows, and on cracks that radiate diagonally down from the three upper windows and finally redecorating same. The problem is those four bushes







I don't have much room. Personally I'd take chainsaw to them but that is not an option.

I have a small scaffold tower but even though the bushes are soft and squash-able I'm not sure that the tower will slide in over any of them that easily. The bushes are quite thick and so will be trying to push the tower away - gut feel says. I can't prune them back very much either.

Even if I manage to get the tower in place climbing up it is going to be a bit iffy because normally one climbs up inside the tower. But now as there is a bloody great bush in the way, one has to climb up the outside which even with stabiliser outriggers is always a bit iffy. Leaning a ladder against it also is unstable as the tower likes to lean over under a lateral load.

So I'm reluctantly coming round to thinking about hiring something or getting scaffolding erected. Hiring is probably out as you can see there is not much space to stick up a tower at either end (one suggestion was two towers and flying platforms). I've no experience of scaffolding, costs etc.

Any suggestions or alternative proposals ?
 
Can you tie your tower to the house? Not sure how without drilling holes, but maybe a couple of ring bolts placed temporally then fill the holes before you decorate?
 
It's not tying the scaffold to the house that would be the problem. It's the falling towards the house that is the issue. I have good stabilisers that stop it falling away from the house.
 
Get some proper scaff put up, I does not cost much if you shop around and makes life soooo much easier.

Scaffolders work on the basis of owning far more scaffolding than they can possibly store so by ringing round you can find someone who has to clear one site and needs to throw it up somewhere else PDQ.

Bob

PS Put some diluted roundup or SBK in a bucket and spill it on those bushes so save future problems :lol:
 
How tall is your tower? Could you build two towers, between the bushes, and put boards across the gap?

As for access, I would lean a ladder against the house, I think, and step from the ladder to the tower.
 
Mike G":3363j89z said:
How tall is your tower? Could you build two towers, between the bushes, and put boards across the gap?

As for access, I would lean a ladder against the house, I think, and step from the ladder to the tower.
Click to expand...

The tower only has three pairs of verticals so that limits me to a pair each side which won't be high enough.

I don't think there is room to lean a ladder against the wall TBH.

Rod..I had thought about that and might be a solution.

I'm leaning towards scaffolding.
 
First quote come through for £600+ VAT. Plus suggestion of a weekly inspection for £75 + VAT unless we write and tell them no thanks to the inspection.

At that price I'll be using my tower.
 
Can you not rent a 'manlift'. Thats what we call 'em here. The hydraulic ones is what i am thinking of. You may call them something else. Two kinds..a scissor style or boom type..quite handy. Perhaps? 5
 
fiveeyes":2dhx0pqc said:
Can you not rent a 'manlift'. Thats what we call 'em here. The hydraulic ones is what i am thinking of. You may call them something else. Two kinds..a scissor style or boom type..quite handy. Perhaps? 5
Click to expand...

There's no room for one.

Got another quote and seems like it also will be around the £600 mark but I did negotiate a 20% discount !

One other option is to see if a couple of builders I sometimes bump into down the pub know anyone.
 
fiveeyes":2toltpja said:
Can you not rent a 'manlift'. Thats what we call 'em here. The hydraulic ones is what i am thinking of. You may call them something else. Two kinds..a scissor style or boom type..quite handy. Perhaps? 5
Click to expand...
Over here they are often known as cherry pickers.
 
Afternoon Roger

Google 'ladder cripples'

Could you make something like them?

Make your own ladders and stabilisers out of something like 3 x 2 ?

Cheers

Dave
 
Hi Dave

What a great suggestion, thanks. I can see how they will work at the top of a ladder but as one moves downwards then they have to move away from the wall. So ..perhaps not for my purposes...BUT ..and I'd never have got there if I hadn't been searching for 'ladder cripples'.

The staging board!
LSDkit270.jpg


A 4.8m board + 3 handrail brackets + 2 handrails for safety will get me well on my way. I can use the existing tower to support one end but the other end is a bit trickier. My tower has up to three verticals per side. If I could buy a couple more then I could split the tower height (2 verticals high) and use half at each end.

So may well bite the bullet and buy another tower. I can buy the lot for about the same price as scaffolding. So the bonus is that I can use the staging board around other parts of the house for redecorating, and also indoors to fly across the stairwell. Then when everything is finished possibly sell the stuff that I bought.

So result, I think.
 
Duly bought the extra tower and 4.8m staging board with aluminium handrails and brackets. Friday spent juggling about with positions.



The big question was how to get the staging board up to its final level. It was claimed to be 25kg although I suspected it was a bit heavier. I managed to lift it by myself on to the third rung up on each tower, the plan then being to slide it a bit more into Tower A thus clearing the other end at Tower B. So freeing it up to be lifted up one rung on Tower B and then slid back into position. Move ends and repeat thus moving the staging board up gradually. As it got higher, I'd get underneath it and do a biceps press-up to get it onto each level.

Then I discovered that the staging board is fitted with some very very grippy rubber strips to stop the board sliding about. These prevented me sliding the board into the towers. Bit of builders' plastic underneath the runners fixed that.

All went swimmingly until I'd got it up to just above head height and then just after I'd slid it into Tower B and was lifting it prior to sliding it back onto the new level on A, disaster struck. It refused to slide into place. Moreover I could feel that as I pulled it I was trying to pull Tower B over. I knew what had happened. The bit of builders plastic had fallen out. So there I was holding one, now, unsupported end of the board. Unable to pull it onto the rung to take the weight, I couldn't go up. I couldn't go down.

Just then I heard SWMBO in the bathroom and I called up to her to come down NOW and help me! She stood on one end of Tower B while I yanked it back onto A. Not that easy to direct as, bright as she is, SWMBO's sense of spatials, physics and practicalities is nigh on non-existent and so I have to spell out what she has to do in great and exact detail. Not easy while holding the board up on the air. :(

Can anyone spot the compromise I have had to make?
 
9fingers":305waxvq said:
There does appear to be a bit of greenery on the deck now?

However the main difference seems to be that the problem you posed was for the front of the house and now you have erected at the rear!


Bob
Click to expand...

LOL! That's because now I am self-sufficient I have the luxury of using it all around the house. And indoors, to boot.
 
Andyp":10w40xey said:
Roger,
What is that big green metal looking box in the middle?
Click to expand...

Our external Warmflo oil-fired CH burner. Freed up a load of space indoors which enabled us to move the loo to where the old boiler used to be which then meant the utility room could be enlarged, No oil smells in the house anymore either!
 
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