In the region of £300-400? Scary flexy not worth it, or okay? Got a lot of work to do, and debating just buying my own tower so I can do jobs safely

Been borrowing a friend’s for my build. Handy bit of kit. Sturdy enough once it’s level. Very happy with it. Makes lots of jobs so much easier

What was the brand? I have mock Tudor timbers to repair, guttering and some soffits, and possibly remove or cap and old chimney

PASMA towers or just low level platforms/podiums?

I’ve done the course for both, if you put them together competently they’re fine. Equally I’ve seen people on site put them together badly and thoroughly test their hard hats as a result!

The course is worth doing if you’re using the towers, the low level bit is a bit mickey mouse if all you use is podiums. The platforms are somewhere between the two.

No idea on the make. Its a pretty cheap steel affair and getting a bit rusty. Certainly wouldn’t reach my chimney, though.

Recently did the Mickey Mouse training for low level stuff myself, main thing I learned is how many examples the trainers have of people failing dramatically. Just do yourself a favour and stop and check what you’re doing before you go up, and you’ll be fine.

I don’t like heights so find the towers a little scary but they actually do the job very well. Nothing like as convenient as proper scaffolding if you have to keep moving them around though. Why not hire one for the first job and see what you think

I’m looking at these
https://www.aluminium-scaffoldtowers.co.uk/domestic-light-duty-diy/loyal-diy-towers/super-ediy-6-with-stiffeners-aluminium-scaffold-tower.html

Didn’t know there was a course, happy to get trained if it’s worth it, watching you tubes, it looks pretty straightfroward

If not a youngman/boss i’d give it a miss, if it has any hammer marks on it i’d also give it a miss
I did the pasma thing years ago kept getting yellow card for standing up they want you to sit on your bum at all times not much fun if its raining
I wouldn’t go very high up on a tower they just feel dodgy compared to kwikstage or cuplock scaffolds

DT78 that scaffold would fail no toe boards and no room to do much other than stand and try and look cool up that height

No toe boards, etc, is why they are labelled DIY only. Wouldn’t be legal in an employment situation, and wouldn’t stand up to that kind of use. But for painting the ceiling over the stairs, or fixing gutters, etc, much better than working off a ladder.

I’ve just bought one of these (fairly sure it’s from the same factory as DT78’s link):
https://www.laddersandscaffoldtowers.co.uk/acatalog/Premium-DIY-Scaffold-Towers.html

Labelled up as Made in France by Rehausse, model name FIRST PRESTO. Claims to meet French Standard 85-200, but no mention of ENs, CE mark, or CPD. (Typical French, still working to their own rules!) Quite impressed by the build quality, but I haven’t erected it yet so I don’t know how solid it will feel, but I am confident it will be stable, if used within the criteria it’s designed for (and, as above, put together competently)

I borrowed a tower that was the same as your brand Greybeard.

Wobbly and therefore too scary for me at gutter height.

I then got scaffolding put up which was much better – especially for doing long lengths in one go

The main problem with that one you’ve linked dt is that there is not really a proper rung ladder access. If you look at the boss or young man versions you’ll see a simple vertical ladder at one end with a hatch through the deck boards.
I’ve been using them years, if you’ve a head for heights they’re fine, nice to get up to a wall and brace in properly with the outriggers pushing you tight up.
I can put up a 7m one solo but you’d not be passing your Parma course doing stuff like that 😉

Looked into this recently having bought a Grand Designs style project. My conclusion was Youngman/Boss only – they are more expensive but I’m not happy at heights at the best of times so wanted something non wobbly, the main thing was that they hold their value well so after a few years when all the high level work was done i’d get a decent amount back when sold (far cheaper than the equivalent hire costs)

No toe boards surely an incomplete unsafe scaffold diy or not as your wife or partner walks past bringing you coffee and a jam peece
In the photo how many gardens have as flat, tidy an area to build a scaffold
A wee bit off the level at the bottom and 4m up will be well off the plumb
You need one where you can wheel then lock them and adjust to get level, can’t do that with that scaffold safely

The SWL on the linked tower is 150kg. This will limit how much material you can place on the platform and could fail if you over exert yourself removing a stuck thing especially if you are not a waif like cyclist. The trade ones are designed for 850kg load or higher.

I’m a qualified scaffolder (but haven’t worked as one for twenty years), the DIY towers are OK for limited light duty uses but you need to pay particular attention to where you are erecting them making sure that the ground is solid (use thick ( < 4cm) boards to spread the load) and that you have everything level/vertical. Once the working platform is above 2 metres then you need to be tying the scaffold to the building so that it doesn’t sway – commercial scaffolding has rules about how often this must occur.

The professional scaffolding towers have outriggers (tubing at 45 degrees) fixed to them to give a wider footprint to make them safer.

The SWL on the linked tower is 150kg. This will limit how much material you can place on the platform and could fail if you over exert yourself removing a stuck thing especially if you are not a waif like cyclist. The trade ones are designed for 850kg load or higher.

150kg isn’t unusual for a single tower like the one in the link, effectively its 1 man plus tools. The double ones are usually 300kg.

Bear in mind you have to deduct the weight of the tower from the SWL too, so its a 500kg SWL for the tower minus 100kg of tower. Then each board has a rating so you’re limited by how much can be on each level (150kg per board would be fairly typical).

The towers course is worth doing if you’re going to be assembling it yourself, there’s at least an equal amount of things I wouldn’t have thought of without the course and things I thought would be sensible but in fact aren’t (eg never use a safety harness attached to a tower)

BOSS towers are cheap as chips to hire from Speedy.
Have used up to 14.4m towers for work. They sway like hell but are stable enough.
Just make sure you assemble it properly including the outriggers.

If you are messing about with towers please do a PASMA course.

I have seen members of my team who have done the course still make mistakes and some of them could have been fatal.

I’ve had a bunch of scaffolding up the side of my house for about a month. My neighbour ask permission to have it put up so they could get their solar panels replaced. It was a half day job but no one has collected the scaffolding, in my side alley, not leaving enough width enough for my uber enduro race face bars.

Anyway, free to anyone to collect. email in profile.

Many years ago I used one . NOt rocket science and no problems. Just think carefully about how you put it up and where the weight is going

I have seen members of my team who have done the course still make mistakes and some of them could have been fatal.

No offence but they wouldn’t be members of “My team” anymore. Putting up a tower is a piece of piss, they should even give you a diagram if hiring as it’s part of the contract.

 Once the working platform is above 2 metres then you need to be tying the scaffold to the building so that it doesn’t sway – commercial scaffolding has rules about how often this must occur.

Not at 2 m do you dont. I’m up 6m on traditional independent scaffold at the minute and we haven’t had to punch through for any window bracings etc. As for 45 degree tubes that is poor practice in my opinion and does little to stabilise trad scaffold. It’s just something for the forklift to run in to…

thanks for the comments. the ground is use it on is pretty level so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I could do with learning what the safest way to get timbers up to the platform if you are solo.

I also have an alley down one side of the house, just under 1m wide then with the gutteting/soffit overhanging. What is the normal width?

when I looked into hiring it was quite expensive as i would have it for a long time. (have to do the work around 2 small kids and a full time job) the idea was to sell on afterwards

DT I’d genuinely be looking at getting one with proper height adjustable casters though. Expensive to buy yes, you may pick one up cheap second hand but a much better all round and safer scaff to use. Make sure you get 4 bracings. A single tower which is one witb only one width deck board is usually around 500/600 wide, a double being double that.

DT78,

Have you considered purchasing from Screwfix ? their LYTE Helix towers are not the cheapest but are recognised as a decent make, might be easier to sell on?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/lyte-sf18nw37-helix-narrow-width-industrial-tower-3-7m/72288

Wrightyson, I would agree with you but we don’t put towers up very often, they were scolded and sent to bed with no dinner.
In all seriousness no towers are allowed up on site without a senior member of the team checking them over.

@DT78 – “pretty level” isn’t level. What you might think of as being OK gets amplified once you start getting to any sort of height. It’s your safety, why compromise it?

@wrightyson – From memory (this is 20 years ago remember) a scaffold had to be tied in at 4 metre intervals though this was mainly aimed at “big” jobs where you were going to 20 metres or more. For a typical 2 storey house we never bothered unless the terrain dictated otherwise. I can’t imagine the rules have become relaxed – scaffolders wear safety harnesses all the time now whereas they were only ever used for those jobs where you were cantilevered out from a building or similar. Back then there’d be only one hand-rail whereas now the rules state that there’s two plus toe-board.

45 degree tubing/outriggers – how is that different from your “bracings”? Generally not needed for standard tube and fitting scaffolds but they were mandatory for towers even indoors on a flat concrete surface on all sites I worked on.

I use mobile and fixed scaffolds all day long on pretty much every job these days. That tower is cheap because it is utter rubbish, I wouldn’t contemplate it for a second.

It will be exceptionally difficult to level. As has been said you need properly adjustable feet on all corners and then you are going to need boards under them if on soft or awkward ground. If you aren’t level you are going to maim yourself. Cheap towers are bitches to put together, decent ones mean all the fittings and clips slot together quick and simply, there’s no messing about. Even with a top notch one it is very easy to set up a wobble fest that you will crap yourself on.

Buy a decent tower, or hire. If you buy a reputable one you will be able to sell it on easily. Also don’t rule out a fixed tower put up for you, simple scaffs are not as expensive as you might think.

It’s really easy to make a mistake with towers, really easy.

Well I haven’t got a spirit level out yet to check, but it could be a hell of a lot worse, would be a simple job to put planks down to help if needed.

Interesting scaffold workers should be in harnesses, house across the road is getting external cladding, and the blokes definitely aren’t wearing harnesses. They have scaffolding round the whole house, rather than a tower though. They even have the mitre saw up there!

I had looked at those Screwfix ones they are a bit spendy, I’ve set up alerts on eBay to see if anything comes up. Presumably they maybe a few more home owners who do the same, or try to get rid of stuff that has been abandoned!

At this time of year trying to put up a scaffold yourself is such a pain, freezing cold fingers from wet gloves, braces that have been bashed about a bit from hammers or dropped from height and those who go up 7m on a tower watch and not clout your balls as you go up and through the hatch as you must have big ones

Don’t forget gum tree. May well have more luck on there.
Scaffolders and harnesses, mmm ever so slightly grey area….

At this time of year trying to put up a scaffold yourself is such a pain, freezing cold fingers from wet gloves, braces that have been bashed about a bit from hammers or dropped from height and those who go up 7m on a tower watch and not clout your balls as you go up and through the hatch as you must have big ones

@DT78 – it’s the people putting the scaffold up who have harnesses not the workers using the scaffold. Does tend to be the bigger jobs, not been on a housing estate recently to check there. It might be a company policy or it might be something that’s come from HSE.

To give you an idea of the importance of the foundations of a scaffold, for a typical scaffold going around a domestic 2 storey house then 20% of the time would be getting the foundations firm and sorted, 30% building the first lift* with the remaining 50% for everything else.

* a “lift” in scaffolding terms is one level or run of horizontal tubing where you could put boards down for people to work on. Depending on the trade using the scaffold this can be anything from 4’6″ for brickies to 7ft for plasterers.

4’6″ for brickies

It has been a long time hasn’t it 😆 **** doing lifts at that height. Those **** have got it easy enough at the moment without giving them nice lift sizes like that.
An these big jobs you keep going on about, would my 2.5 mil 3 no. 30x12m starter units qualify 😉
Check out nasc regs, all good scaffolders are registered these days. There are certain things they recommend now such as access stairs as opposed to ladders, but it is a recommendation.

If I had to do a day’s scaffolding now it’d kill me! My body’s just not used to that level of effort, it was bad enough doing a job a couple of years after I’d stopped doing it full time.

I’m sure many of the regs have changed or been updated: every scaffold I see now has double hand-rails for example so there must have been some accidents where a single hand-rail was a contributory factor and the standard/regs were updated. I might still have the book of regs and standard practices I was given on my courses down at Bircham Newton.

Whitestone new regs appeared around 2007-ish (it’s a while since I inspected one). All lift entrances should now be protected by a gate/trapdoor to prevent the renderer/plasterer going down a lift unintentionally. (Yes one of the accidents I investigated, was a chap “in the zone”, he was only bruised).

No way would I have seen those – it was probably around 1993 when I last did any commercial work and only a year or two later doing small scale stuff, odd day here and there.

Interesting scaffold workers should be in harnesses, house across the road is getting external cladding, and the blokes definitely aren’t wearing harnesses. They have scaffolding round the whole house, rather than a tower though. They even have the mitre saw up there!

Depends on the scaffold and the task (i.e. do a risk assessment). The point i made was you should never attach your harness to the tower, all that will achieve is you hitting the ground slightly later, followed by being crushed by the tower! The harness has to be attached to something else unless it’s proper scaffold in which case whoever put it up should have designed it for those side loads.

Mobile towers are usually only designed for side loads ~20kg (i.e. drilling a big hole).

As for buying Vs hiring, they take minutes to erect so unless you plan on doing several weeks of work it’s probably not that much more expensive than buying.