Does the scaffold go across both halves of a semi?

It does here, and it often should. Where both halves are in the same contract there is no sense stopping at the party wall, because a continuous run is one erection rather than two and it leaves no awkward gap at the boundary. Where only one half is being worked on, the answer is different and the scaffold stops at the party wall.

Boarded scaffold lift at eaves level across the front of a house in west London, one of twenty identical houses on the same roofing contract, with a mature tree at the boundary alongside

Featured Project

Scaffolding Twenty Identical Houses on One Roofing Contract

West LondonSafe AccessRepeat Contract

Twenty houses to the same design. Whatever you get wrong on the first one, you get wrong twenty times.

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Location

West London

Sector

Domestic, Repeat Contract

Service

Safe Access

Scale

One of twenty identical houses

What We Built

The short version. Twenty houses, all built to the same design, all needing the same roofing work. That changes the job. A one off scaffold is a problem you solve on the day you arrive. Twenty identical houses is a problem you solve once and then repeat nineteen times.

A boarded working lift at eaves level, running the width of the worked half and returning around the side elevation. It sits just under the gutter, which is the height the roofers want for the eaves course and the gutter line.

Above the boards, a double guardrail with mesh brickguard panels and debris netting behind them. Below, standards running to the ground.

Where the standards cross the path to the front door, they are padded. That is the detail most people never notice and the one the residents feel every day.

Why Twenty Identical Houses Is a Different Job

On a single house the scaffold is designed around what you find when you turn up. On a repeat programme the scaffold is designed once, properly, and then it is a kit.

That is worth more than it sounds. The gear is counted once rather than guessed at twenty times. The erection sequence settles after the first two or three and then the crew are quicker on every house after that. The tie pattern is proven on the first one rather than re-worked on each.

It also means the client gets the same scaffold at number four as at number twenty, which on a contract where somebody is signing off handovers matters more than it does on a one off job.

The risk runs the same way. A detail that is slightly wrong does not stay a small problem. It becomes twenty small problems, and on the twentieth house somebody is still working around it.

Eaves level working lift with double guardrail, mesh brickguards and debris netting below the roof line — Double guardrail, mesh brickguards and debris netting. The guardrail protects whoever is on the boards. The brickguards protect whoever is underneath them.

Several properties to the same specification?

Tell us how many and where they are, and we will price the run rather than the first one.

Get A Free Quote 01732 914789

Scaffolding Houses People Are Living In

Nobody moved out for this. The front door is in use, there is a car on the drive and planters by the step.

So the scaffold has a second user who never appears on the contract. The roofer is up top for a few days. The family walks under it every morning for the length of the job.

That is why the standards across the door approach are padded, and why there are brickguards and netting at the lift rather than a bare guardrail. The guardrail protects the person on the boards. The brickguards protect the person underneath them, and on an occupied house that person is the resident.

None of it is difficult. All of it has to be decided before the first house goes up, because twenty houses is twenty times the chance of somebody walking into a tube in the dark.

What This Project Taught Us

Quote the first house, price the twentieth.

The temptation on a repeat programme is to price what is in front of you and assume the rest will be the same. They are the same building. They are not the same job. This one came with the tree. The next will come with a side gate a lorry cannot reach, or a conservatory where this one has a path, and none of that shows up on a drawing.

What we do now on any multi property contract is walk the whole run before quoting, not a sample of it. It takes a morning. It is the difference between a programme that holds and a programme that gets re-priced in week three.

The Outcome

A boarded working lift at eaves level across the frontage with the roof edge and gutter line reachable along its length, guarded above and below, on a house that stayed occupied throughout, built to a design repeated across the contract.

Multiple properties to the same specification, occupied or empty. Tell us how many and where they are, and we will price the run rather than the first one. Contracts across several properties sit with our commercial team.

We work across London and the South East from the yard at Weald, near Sevenoaks, and regularly into Bromley and Orpington.

Scaffolding Bromley Scaffolding Orpington Scaffolding Sevenoaks All areas we cover

Common Questions

Scaffolding Several Properties at Once

We have several properties needing the same work. Is that cheaper than doing them one at a time?

Usually, yes, and the saving is not just in the rate. The gear gets counted once, the crew gets quicker after the first few, and the erection sequence stops being a decision and starts being a routine. The bigger saving is programme rather than price. A repeat scaffold goes up faster on house fifteen than it did on house one.

Can people stay in the house while the scaffold is up?

On work like this, yes, and most do. What matters is the route in and out. The standards that cross the path to the door get padded, and the working lift gets brickguards and netting rather than a bare rail, so nothing coming off the roof can reach the path below. It is worth asking any scaffolder how they handle the door approach before they quote.

What happens when a tree or an outbuilding is in the way?

It gets designed around, which is the normal answer and the reason a scaffolder should look at the property rather than price it off a description. On this house a mature tree sits at the boundary, so the scaffold returns past it. Nothing gets cut back unless the owner has asked for it, because taking a saw to somebody’s tree to save an hour is not a trade we make.

How high does the scaffold need to be for roofing work?

For eaves and gutter work, a lift just under the gutter is usually right, which is what is on this house. Work higher up the slope or at the ridge needs the scaffold taking up accordingly, and a full strip and re-cover is a different conversation again, because that is when a temporary roof comes into it.

Could this approach work on your contract?

Tell us what the work is and how many properties, and we will tell you what the access needs to be.

Ask Us 01732 914789

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Scaffolding Across Multiple Properties

Housing contracts, estate programmes and anything where the same scaffold goes up more than once. Fixed quote before we mobilise, across Kent, London and the South East.

Or call 01732 914789