Do I need scaffolding to replace gutters?
Not always. A short run of guttering can often be done off ladders or a tower, if the ground is firm. Scaffolding is needed once the run is long or high, or once the work needs both hands and somewhere to stand.
Ladder, tower or scaffold
Ladder: one spot, a short job, minutes rather than hours, with the ladder footed or tied.
Tower: a platform with a guard rail, on level firm ground. Good for a section of fascia, gutter or painting, and it wheels along the wall.
Scaffold: a whole elevation, any work on the roof slope, or anything that means working along a length with both hands.
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 set the test. A ladder is for short, low risk work where putting up something safer is not reasonable. Everything else gets a platform.
Do I need scaffolding to paint a house?
Not for a bungalow, and not for a single elevation a tower can reach.
Yes for a full two or three storey house, for a gable end, or for anything that means working along a wall for days.
Painting is slow work in one position. Time on a ladder is exactly what the rules are written about.
A tower is often the sensible middle. It moves along the wall, gives somewhere to stand a tin, and costs less than a scaffold.
Do I need permission for scaffolding?
On your own drive or garden, no. It goes up and nobody needs to be asked.
On a public pavement or road, yes. The council's highways department has to give permission before it goes up, and there is a fee.
The scaffolder normally applies for it. Councils take anything from a few days to a couple of weeks.
On a shared drive, or where the scaffold has to stand on next door's land, the neighbour has to agree first. Get that sorted before the delivery.
What scaffolding adds to a job
Time at both ends. It is delivered, built, and then taken down and collected.
Space. It needs a clear route in and somewhere to unload, and it stands on part of the drive or garden while the job runs.
Once it is up, the work goes faster and safer, and more of the job can be checked properly.
That is why it makes sense to do everything on that elevation at once. Gutters, fascias, soffits, verge, ridge and painting while the access is already there.
Jobs that always need it
A full reroof. The covering has to come off, and there is no edge protection without it.
Any work along a ridge or a verge, which means moving along the top of the roof.
A full elevation of fascia, soffit and guttering on a two storey house.
Anything where a person has to stand on the roof slope itself.
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