Scaffolding FAQs: Costs, Rules and How the Job Works

A scaffolding price is built from three parts rather than one rate: putting it up, the hire period it stays for, and taking it down again. Height, lift count, how many elevations are boarded, how close a wagon can get and whether a temporary roof is needed all move those three parts. Every job is quoted free and priced individually.

Metre rates exist inside the trade as an estimating tool, because materials are counted in tubes, boards and metres of frontage. They are not how a customer's job is priced. Two ten-metre frontages can need very different structures depending on height, ground conditions and access, so the figure that matters is the quoted price for your scaffold, in writing.

Your quote sets out the structure specified for the job, the erection, the hire period it covers, the dismantle, and any pavement or highway licence needed to stand it. It also names up front the things that would change the price: an overrun past the hire period, a change to the scope, ground or access conditions found on site, and any adaption while the scaffold is up. No extra work starts until its price is confirmed in writing and you have agreed to it.

There is no fixed limit. A scaffold is quoted for an initial hire period that matches your programme and stays as long as the work needs, provided it is inspected at the required intervals and any pavement licence stays current. Extensions are ordinary and are agreed and priced in writing before the period runs on, never billed afterwards.

Scaffolding goes up in most Cornish weather, but there is a point in the wind where handling boards and tubes at height stops being safe, and work pauses until it passes. If a delay pushes past the hire period, the extension is priced in writing like anything else. A temporary roof takes most of that risk away from the trades underneath.

A scaffold used for construction work is inspected before first use, after any alteration, and at intervals of no more than seven days. We provide scaffold tags and a handover certificate on request at no charge. Inspections during the hire can be arranged and are priced with the job, so you know what is covered before it goes up.

Scaffolding is a qualification-led trade where operatives train through recognised card schemes over a period of years, and recruitment nationally has not kept pace with construction demand. For a buyer that shows up as lead time rather than a shortage of firms to ring. The practical answer is to book the scaffold when you book the trade working off it.

Yes. Roofers, builders, renderers and main contractors are a large share of the work, taken as single hires or a running arrangement across several jobs. Every scaffold is erected and struck by our own gangs, adaptions are handled while it is up, and the programme is built around your trades. See scaffold hire.

£10m of public liability. It covers injury to other people and damage to their property arising from our work, and it is double the £5m most contracts and domestic jobs ask about. It is also the level main contractors and managing agents look for before a subcontractor goes on site. Certificates are available on request.

Jordan James has ten years in scaffolding and incorporated JJ Cornwall Scaffolding Ltd in January 2019. The team is four people running two gangs from a yard in Penzance, and Jordan holds an Advanced Supervisor qualification. His own experience runs to major structures: the Dawlish rail reconstruction, South Crofty tin mine, Hayle viaduct and Lloyds Bank in Bristol.