We have some work to do on the guttering of our house and also next door's but these are terraced houses and it's at the front, ie, on the street, and means that the method of access to the gutters has to be movable along the length of both houses. If we hire some sort of scaffolding or access tower it means time and effort spent in erecting/taking down the thing and may make the job span two days, plus we have to get a street permit from the council (£23).
So, I was thinking that maybe we could hire one of these van-mounted cherry picker thingies that you see guys using for street lighting maintenance. We should be able to park it in the place where I normally park my car and no time spent erecting/stripping down means that we could get the job done in the one day - much easier all round.
However, all the hire sites I've looked at so far seem to suggest that you have to go on a training course before you can use one of these things. The course (on successful completion) seems to give you a card that lasts for 5 years. In other words, it seems that they are training you for a career in using elevating platforms and looking towards future employment, which is obviously no good for someone who wants to hire it for a day while his mate goes and does some work on the gutters. Have I got this right? Is there really no way Joe Public can just hire one for a day?
TIA