In article , Fred
writes
Hello

I need to paint the rendering on my house again. I have two areas where
access is a problem. One is over a conservatory and the other is a very high
(~32') roof line on one side - the house is built on a slope and the damp
course is about 8' above ground level on that side.

Last time I painted (before the conservatory) I used a long ladder.
Unfortunately, there is an unmoveable fence on the high side of the house
leaving only about 5' between the fence and the house - meaning the ladder
was at a decidedly unsafe angle.

I'm thinking about using scaffolding or some sort of tower arrangement this
time round and wondered if anyone had any experience of these. How high can
the preassembled towers reach and are they reasonably easy to use? I'm
assuming that erecting traditional scaffolding is a skilled job that has to
be done by professionals? How long does it take to scaffold one (high) side
of a house and how much will I need to budget for?

Our conservatory is a traditional (i.e. uPVC!) construction with triple
layer (acrylic?) plastic panels in the roof. Is it possible to plank these
over and walk on them? If not, then how easy is it to span a 15' wide
conservatory with an access platform - are there special purpose solutions
to this problem?

If you can spread the load across 2 roof beams, then it is OK to stand
on. I don't think you should stand on the roof panels themselves. I made
a little roof platform which I could put on ours for gutter access when
required.

re scaffolding, you can definitely get 30ft with a tower. If you hire
one, the hire place will normally deliver it and put it up for you.
--
Tim Mitchell