Scaffolding

This is where long poles and paint rollers come in to play. You can actually hire the tools for this job quite cheaply, and they make life so much easier. All you need is access to a height where you can see the job, not actually be close to the job. You can then roll the paint on with ease.

For the little fiddly bits you get a brush that fixes to the end of the long pole. This is dipped and worked along the edges before the roller comes in and finishes the large spaces. Easy, and safer.

Be warned they send paint spray everywhere -- you'll want to cover the conservatory, and also anything horizontally away from the area. I noticed my nice new black gutter pipes are now speckled, stangely the same colour as a neighbour painted the end wall of his house, and these must be 15' away, horizontally.

My neighbour had a scaffolding tower arrangement that spanned his conservatory, basically two towers and a "walkway" inbetween braced to the towers. The decorators/gutter/soffit replacement/repair was all done that way. No idea of cost though.

I walked on our conservatory using planks and props inside. The chap who installed cavity wall insulation did the same.

In article , Fred writes

If you can spread the load across 2 roof beams, then it is OK to stand on. I don't think you should stand on the roof panels themselves. I made a little roof platform which I could put on ours for gutter access when required.

re scaffolding, you can definitely get 30ft with a tower. If you hire one, the hire place will normally deliver it and put it up for you.

I had scaffolding erected to cover a small conservatory (approx 3x3 metre) to allow easy access to the two windows above it - the top one of which is very large, although partially accessible from the roof terrace. And to allow painting of the soffit above that. Also to protect the rather expensive glass roof of the conservatory.

Cost in London was 200 quid.

Having rendered the new gable end of my house last year, I was quite pleased with the match in styles of rough cast render... that was right up until I had to paint the b*stard!

The problem I found with a roller was getting enough pressure on it to get into all the little holes in the surface - especially if using it on a pole. In the end I found that one of the 4" wide small rollers designed for painting behind radiators worked best - faster than a brush, and also good at painting behind downpipes. For the bits where I needed a brush, I found cutting down a masonry brush to about half its usual bristle length helped make it that much stiffer, which is good for getting into the render.

Scaffolding is not that expesnive top hire. A team of three can put up a couple of towers in half a day and take it down even quicker. Id say a few hundred notes will cover it. And it really makes things so much easier...

Yup - ladders above about 10 ft or so are a no no for me. A tower you'd probably spend as much time building and moving as using - even if it could be erected where needed.

Scaffolding feels safe - even to a coward like me.

Thanks for all the helpful replies - much appreciated.

I'm not too keen on the idea of using long poles since the last time I painted our (very rough textured) rendering I found it hard to work the paint into the surface with a normal roller and brush. I doubt I'd get enough force via a long pole - plus you need to attack from all angles. I'm also concerned about splashes and spray - that was a real pain last time and poles would probably make that worse.

Scaffolding sounds like the answer but I was imagining a very high cost - sounds like I should get some quotes.

Thanks again.

Fred

We've got scaffolding up now. Just waiting for the shade before I start working again.

The scaffolding covers the rear and side, all the way up the top of the roof. It does make it very easy. The cost is about =A3300 for a considerable length of time. The front of the house was completed 2 years ago in the same way. I wouldn't do it any other way now.

Andy

I'd look at hiring a cherry picker, probably cheeper than scaffolding the whole house.

Rick