Getting your home ready for scaffolding

Having a scaffold put up on your house is quicker and easier than most people expect. A little preparation makes it quicker still, and saves you finding a trampled flower bed or an annoyed neighbour at the end of the day.

Talk to your neighbours

If the scaffold will run in front of next door, sit on their side of the path or need to stand on their land, talk to them before it arrives. Standing a scaffold on someone else's property needs their permission, so it is worth agreeing it in good time. Even when it is all on your side, a quick word about the lorry and the noise goes a long way.

Sort out the parking

Scaffolding arrives on a lorry, and the tube and boards are carried from there to the house. Keep the space outside clear on the day if you can, and move your own car off the drive if the scaffold is going on that side. If it will stand on the pavement or road, there is a licence to sort out first: see our post on scaffolding on the pavement.

Clear the ground

The scaffold stands on base plates on the ground all around the work area. Move pots, garden furniture, bins, bikes and children's toys out of the way. If there are plants or shrubs you are fond of right next to the wall, move them or tell us where they are so we can work around them.

Look up as well as down

Take a look at what is on the walls: satellite dishes, TV aerials, hanging baskets, outside lights, burglar alarm boxes, phone and broadband cables. Tell us about anything that is in the way or that you would rather was not touched, and let your broadband or TV provider know if a cable might need moving.

Keep the house secure

A scaffold makes upstairs windows easier to reach, for everybody. While it is up:

• keep upstairs windows locked when you are out and at night;
• do not leave keys, tools or valuables in sight of the windows;
• check your home insurance is happy with the work being done;
• consider a scaffold alarm if the scaffold will be up for a long time.

Children and pets

A scaffold is a building site, not a climbing frame. Keep children and pets away from it, and make sure everyone in the house knows not to go up it, however tempting the view.

When the work is finished

Let us know as soon as the job is done, so the scaffold can come down and you can have your house back. Dismantling is usually quicker than putting it up.

If you are planning work on your house, see where we work and send us the job.