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Hi guys/gals, I’m a newbie on here so hope I’ve put this in a relevant place. Next March/April the loft conversion and rear extension are kicking off on my 2 bed end of terrace bungalow. Me and my brother will be doing about 70% of the work, I’m and Electrician and also can do plumbing, getting in a friend to do the roof and rear dormer (as it’s a truss roof). so getting to the point, me and my brother will be removing all of the existing tiles and bringing down all trusses and existing joists. Tell me if this sounds hopeful, but I was looking at getting a 20M x 15M tarpaulin and covering the entire roof, and just putting in a temporary ridge to let the water slope off. This will have eyelet holes and be fixed to external walls. Firstly, would you recommend rear and front scaffolding at eaves height to remove the tiles/roof (if so, any idea on costs)? Or could we just have a movable tower hired? secondly, I need to talk to my chippy friend about this really, but would we need scaffolding for the new timbers being installed? I was thinking that the ceiling joists would be installed from wall plate to wall plate and then that would give us a floor to stand on for installing the rest above? Once all in I can put down the breathable membrane to make it water tight. thankyou in advance for any advice. Here is a picture of the plans just to give you an idea.

Evening, I'm contemplating going down the kwikstage scaffolding for my build and wondered about the ground conditions. I've roughly levelled out around my build but how does kwikstage fair with soft ground and clay which is bound to move and sink? Do they come with adjustable legs as standard? Do I rest every leg on a scaffold board (or are there special base boards) and then it's a simple case of checking them regularly to make sure they aren't loose? Cheers Vijay

.... that I have put the scaffolding up too close to the wall.... so that when I come to put the first row of roof tiles on the roof, they will hit the verticals. That's buggered up my Sunday off . Take it all down, move it six inches, put it all back up. Damn! Sleep tight! Annoyed of Lancaster

Thought it might be useful to detail an accident that happened on our site during the main construction if only to prevent others from having a similar issue. I'm sure that we must have done some things wrong here, but there were others to blame in this tale too, and the events that unfolded seemed very bizarre to me. We used a registered scaffolding company to hire the scaffolding from and this was erected in August 2009. It was used for several months to do all of the main construction work and then towards the end of its time here someone fell off it. We used a particular builder to do all of the timber frame work, he supplied his own workers, and we paid him (and only him), in cash as he requested. We never paid any money directly to his team members. Towards the end of 2009 he sent a new guy here to do some work on the soffits and he arrived along with one of the regular team (the boss wasn't on site that day which wasn't that unusual as it was often just members of his team). The OH was living in a caravan on site at that time so greeted the 2 guys, one of whom he knew quite well as he had been working here for several months. He offered them tea and bacon rolls as he tended to do most mornings and went into the caravan to sort that out. About 10 minutes after they arrived there was a shout and the new guy had apparently fallen from the first level of the scaffolding landing on his arse (see photo to see the height of the first platform for reference). His co worker hadn't seen him fall and nor had my hubby who was in the caravan at the time. He was lying on the ground so my hubby called an ambulance. He said that the guy then got up, staggered to his car, put on his hi vis jacket and hard hat and sat in his car. When the ambulance arrived they suggested that he shouldn't have got into his car, and that they might get the fire brigade out to remove the roof in case he had damaged his neck. The guy refused their help at that point, said he wasn't having his car wrecked, and drove home. My husband reported the accident to the scaffolding company whereupon the owner drove to the site and attached an insurance certificate to the scaffolding dated that day. He said that the scaffolding wasn't signed off to use prior to that date even though it was hired back in August, several months before and had been used pretty much daily. Clearly he hadn't insured the site as he should have done. Health and Safety came to the site too and declared that some 'clips' were missing from the scaffolding, and put a notice on it declaring it not to be used. The scaffolding company came and put the clips on and it was then signed off as able to be used again. Apparently later that day the guy who fell off went to A&E and declared that he had hurt himself badly. He then engaged a no win no fee solicitor and took himself off to Australia to 'convalesce' or so he claimed. We reported the accident to our insurance company, and stated that the worker had been supplied by the contractor who was erecting the timber frame, and the scaffolding was supplied by the registered scaffolding company. The first issue we had was that the builder denied having supplied the worker. This left us with an issue as our insurance company said that we couldn't prove that the worker came via the main builder, and nor could we prove that we hadn't employed him direct. The scaffolding company collected the scaffolding and put themselves into liquidation meaning that the no win no fee lawyer came after us. My husband had to make statements and years later it was still going on with any settlement the insurance company was prepared to make reducing as time went on. It all seemed quite bizarre to us however that it was our insurance cover that was being claimed against when there were 2 other parties involved. In hindsight we should probably have taken a register of every person on site and who they were supplied from, and required every worker to sign in when they attended. We possibly should have known that scaffolding had to have an insurance certificate attached to it, but we believed that hiring from a registered company would have meant that we were completely covered as they would do the right things. Ironically my husband had refused to hire the scaffolding from anywhere other than a registered scaffold company in order to comply with H&S, but ultimately it did us no good!

It won't have escaped our collective conscience that recently it's been windy. Annoyingly so. Specially if , like me, you are scaffolding. Feeling extra sorry for myself at the end of the DIY working day ( I'd got it wrong' more often than normal ) I was mindlessly watching YT. And bumped into this video - Fred Dibnah. Scroll forward to 6:51 if you can bear it. Did me some good that. Put some lead back in my pencil. " Wind is the scaffolder's enemy ", said Fred. At least he had some justification for saying that.

I've been up and down our scaffolding often enough to qualify as the Local Yoyo Impersonator. Today I had the blower up there, cleaning off the boards ahead of the rain due later tonight (its easier to clean while dry). Climbing a ladder holding a blower isn't ideal. And while thinking how to do this a little more safely, who should come by but our local scaffolder. "Eeeh lad, 'ah've gorra pulley in't van, ye can tek it if ya wants." So there is sits in all its glory stored on my stillage, a nice shine new pulley, some scaffold clips and two new poles. And some rope with a stainless reinforced eye and a new hook. Suddenly I'm fantasizing about doing all sorts of exotic stuff with my pulley. And then caution kicks in. H+S and pulleys....... And scaffolds. With extreme care, this little beauty's going to make my life a lot easier. Where can I look for advice? I've looked - not hard- but I've looked. Any quick ideas apart from leave it on the stillage and admire it while standing on the ground.....?

There's nowt for it. I'll have to buy some. And with my hands, I'll need Kwikstage (KS) not Cuplock. There are other systems worth considering Done some due diligence on BH, and this seems to be the general wisdom; For a slow self-build, the business case is compelling This thread is a general discussion about KwikStage Here's a useful post made by @ProDave ; gives a good feel for how much scaffold you'll get for how much money And a bit of poking round on Tinternet shows we can get new KS fairly readily, and there is easy access to guides on how it's put together I'm using that PDF as a checklist for parts. If I am to make an offer based on this suggestion, I need to know what to look for: £3k is not a small chunk of anyone's money. Caveat Emptor. What should I look out for in second hand Kwikstage?

Evening all, just had a quote for my scaffolding. Basically for the timber framers to work on and then directly after the roofers ... Its a bitty invoice, all split into sections with various costs. But If I am reading it right it SEEMS to suggest it could cost me (for approx 16 weeks hire) over £7000 !! Am i daft in thinking this is ridiculous ?

Hi all - just a quick one - can I look to claim the VAT back on scaffolding, supplied and erected by others? Thanks PW.

Wind. Makes me wince now. Here's why Understandable isn't it? Worse when it happens at night from some point of view, better when it happens at night because people in the main are in bed. But tomorrow deals up the next dose of wind during the working day. And that makes me wonder about scaffolding and limits. What are safe wind limits for working on scaffolding? I suspect there are a good few of us on here who sail boats, some who fly, many who walk on hills. And we'll be aware of local turbulence and unexpected, sudden wind-shadow. Our wall fell over because the wall faced east, had an unrestricted fetch all the way from the Pennies with only Forton Services on the M6 to tubulate the lower wind. Worse, we are on the leading edge of an East facing slope and the wall that fell starts two meters above ground level. Perfect for slope-soaring gliders. The opposite for scaffolders. It's not steady wind I worry about it's turbulence. So, what's safe and what's unsafe? Try, just for me, please, try to keep it straight eh?Just a little bit.