Scaffolding – any ideas of pricing?

Any idea what sort of cost I’m looking at for scaffolding on one side of a house approx 13m wide x 5m high?

Not Laarndarn (N.Wales)

ask a scaffolder? normally they need a visit.

We pay our scaffold sub contractors between £12 and £15 per m2 of wall area, but that’s on a large scale ( tens of thousands of houses per year)

For a one off domestic job, i’d expect that rate to be more like £18 – £20/m2 so somewhere in the region of £1100 to £1300.

Get at least 3 quotes and try to get a fixed cost rather than  an erection / dismantle cost and a weekly hire. You don’t want to get stung for overruns if you have it up for longer than expected.

Bloody hell Perchy, thats a bit tasty. We had scaffold up the side of our house last year ( about the same size as OP ) and it cost £250 for 4 weeks.

It’s a fairly short job (two weeks max).  My builder is doing this job as a bit of a favour – two of his guys at cost + 12% plus the cost of the scaffold.

I reckon it’s going to be about £750, but we’ve agreed a price on the job so I’m not too bothered now!

I’m an ex-scaffolder, no idea of pricing as it’s twenty years since I did any but the company will want a site visit to check the ground, access, etc. After that it’s all much of a muchness really.

There is a scam sometimes done, I’ve had this tried on me, the job will require x metres of tube, y number of boards, z number of fittings which will be on the delivery/job note. When the scaffold is dismantled and taken back to the yard there’ll be x-n, etc. Actually there isn’t, it’s all there, the paperwork has just been altered, at some point in the future the materials will be taken out of the yard and used to start up a new firm! In the meantime, you, the customer gets billed for the “missing” materials. (For the OP, my run-in with this was in N. Wales – Bangor as it happens)

Hmmm…. this is why I’m probably happier that it’s all going through my builder/mate.  He deals with them a lot and so isn’t going to get stiffed which might not be the case if I did it directly – I bet he gets a better price anyway.

Pricing scaffold is a dark art indeed

It’s a fairly short job (two weeks max).  My builder is doing this job as a bit of a favour – two of his guys at cost + 12% plus the cost of the scaffold.

If he was doing you a favour , he’d have given you a fixed price.

The longer the job takes, the more money he makes. No incentive for his guys to finish the job quickly.

If they drag their heels, you pick up the tab.

I was quoted £650 for a mobile tower for a day, by two seperate local companies (Soton)

Decorator used a scissor lift to paint the rendering on the side of my house.  £60 per day IIRC.  Didn’t have to wait either for it to come down 🙂

my scaffolder usually charges about £750 including a nib for slate stacking, for front or back, if acces is good. Around £1650 for full detached house.

If he was doing you a favour , he’d have given you a fixed price.

He has now.  I have a maximum price which may be lower depending on how long it takes to do the job – I guessed 5 days but he thinks maybe 8 days.

Scissor lift would be no good as they’re fitting cladding so need simultaneous access to both ends of 4m long planks – plus the ground outside the house slopes right to left so being up a scissor lift would be somewhat scary!

Give a few a ring  but make sure you open the conversation with the magic words …

“private cash job”.

Then describe the site/size and you’ll probably get a quote over the phone … they’ll not care how long it’s up for…. all their effort is the erecting and pulling down right?

Good luck

make sure they take the scaffolding down sharpish. we wanted scaffolding up for 2 days’ work and it was there for 3 weeks. the scaffolders basically left the stuff on site until they needed it for another job.

Aye, don’t pay them until it’s all taken away obvs.

You will be looking at roughly £1000 if you offer cash you may get it down to about £700 but the cheaper it gets the more you will have to question quality safety and public liability insurance.