working over conservatory

[mikey]

We are about to start decorating the outside of our house this weekend. If we get the downstairs woodwork and masonry done, I'll be happy.

At some point later in the year, we are going to need to repaint the eaves and the rendering that covers the upper storey. Not to bad BUT at the rear of the house we have a 2.5m x 3.5m conservatory with a gently sloping roof. Given that the conservatory is only about 1ft away from the side of the house, and there is limited access on that side, what are our best options for getting above the conservatry to do the walls above it ?

| 1m | house garage | |_______________________________________________ | 30cm | | | | | conservatory | | ___________| |_____________________

[mikey]

sorry about the ascii graphics - your better off ignoring them !!

[Christian McArdle]

What is the roof construction?

If you have double glazed glass, you may find the existing roof structure is strong enough to walk on, if covered in 18mm chipboard. If it is polycarbonate, this is unlikely. It depends on the construction of the rafters. In my case, I've got 150mm deep wooden ones, which are pretty close to meeting building regs for a habitable floor, let alone for occasional maintenance access.

Christian.

[mrcheerful]

Mine is the same, to get access I remove two sheets of polycarbonate and put trestles or a tower up from inside with a proper platform on top, first time I put scaffolding over, but that was over the top (literally, no pun intended)

mrcheerful

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , mikey writes

I have been assured by a local conservatory builder that the roof beams are strong enough to take your weight (even the polycarbonate panels will in an emergency, e.g. fire escape)

For painting/gutter access I made up a little roof ladder thing with crossbeams which straddle 2 of the conservatory roof beams. It creaks a bit but doesn't flex much, so I think it is probably safe. I get off it as soon as I can though!