Is anyone here familiar with scaffolding?

[KilroyJC]

Kilroy, that looks like a Lindal Cedar Kit Home. Very open spaces in that sort of structure. You will definitely want to buy your own scaffold. I don't have a Lindal, but a very open 50 foot Diameter Geo-Dome. And having our own scaffolding is a necessity and not an option. I can't even service the ceiling fan with out the scaffold. Its 25 feet up. This will sound stupid, because it is, in that I rented my scaffold for three years at $110 a month as I built the house, and then just bought the whole thing for $1,200 dollars. I should have just bought it out right, in the first place.

It was built in 1999, we bought it in 2014. I don’t think it was an actual kit, because it Was built by a GC who was building some of the other houses in the subdivision and he lived in it for a year and a day so it wouldn’t be a “spec” house. . . But some of the things seem to be where,odds and ends from other jobs were used (because someone else already paid for it…)

my biggest single complaint is that, instead of putting the hvac exchangers by the blank wall in the living room where the TV goes, they were placed DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH THE WINDOWS FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND STORY BEDROOMS.

Moronic.

 

[ponytug]

Yes, moronic.

I empathize. Our home was built by an HVAC contractor for himself, and he managed to put the compressor/condenser adjacent to two bedrooms. Luckily, we rarely need it in this climate. When it dies,I plan to move the location to the other side of the house.

All the best,

Peter

 

[fidowanttobe]

I've used stack-on H style, ladder jacks, and pump jack. H style is definitely the best if you can.
I finally bought 6 sets of used H style stack-on after renting, borrowing, or unsafe ladder projects. Then i bought 8 levelers that accept wheels and 12 outdoor wheels. Most everything was used. 8 ten foot 2x12's and I also have 2 20" aluminum planks.
I DIY everything and the wheels let me move or tow it myself.
PERFECT! Fits all my needs except where do I put it now?
Bought a very cheap horse trailer that the floor was shot, stacked everything inside for the (sigh) next time I get hailed out.

 

[KilroyJC]

If the decks are over 5' wide, scaffolding will work, H type. If not 5' wide he can use pass through on the bottom, and then go up with H frames. H type is easier to climb. Swallow the hand rails in the pass through. It's called sidewalk scaffolding also, maybe other things in other places. Brick masons use it a lot.

The deck is wide enough for scaffolding, but I will also look into maybe a section of pass-through because you never know when something like that may come in handy…

 

[KilroyJC]

Yes, moronic.

I empathize. Our home was built by an HVAC contractor for himself, and he managed to put the compressor/condenser adjacent to two bedrooms. Luckily, we rarely need it in this climate. When it dies,I plan to move the location to the other side of the house.

All the best,

Peter

I already have intentions of relocating them - I just don’t want th to die any time soon what with other projects that need to get done.
luckily we rarely use the HVAC, as we moved to the mountains from inner city decay —— we LOVE having open windows! And we heat primarily with wood. Our peak electric bill is in the winter and I think last year it topped out about $120.

 

[Dwellonroof]

I keep some scaffolding around leftover from when I had my roofing business. It takes a little more time to setup but it’s stable and you can take your time using it. I also have a couple sets of wheels for setting up such as your deck.

 

[2manyrocks]

It was built in 1999, we bought it in 2014. I don’t think it was an actual kit, because it Was built by a GC who was building some of the other houses in the subdivision and he lived in it for a year and a day so it wouldn’t be a “spec” house. . . But some of the things seem to be where,odds and ends from other jobs were used (because someone else already paid for it…)

my biggest single complaint is that, instead of putting the hvac exchangers by the blank wall in the living room where the TV goes, they were placed DIRECTLY UNDERNEATH THE WINDOWS FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND STORY BEDROOMS.

Moronic.

While you are doing this work, you might consider installing a mini split HVAC dual inverter heat pump to service your main living area. The indoor and outdoor units on mine are so quiet that it's difficult to tell when they are running. They are also very efficient and some of them are rated to provide heat down to -13F.

 

[3Ts]

May I ask what brand/ model you bought?

and this would be perfect for fixing the ceiling fan with our vaulted ceiling 16” up!

Here's the scaffolding I have and the brand is on the label on the planks along with their website and phone number. Keep in mind these are from many years ago. The quality is excellent especially considering how much time they've spent exposed to the weather.

As a side note: these were made in China, shipped to Canada, then I bought them from the Canadian company, had them imported and shipped all the way to Florida and even with the shipping fees and import fees, it was still cheaper than to buy from a company just 400 miles away.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

This thread is timely for me, I was just on my scaffolding today and thinking how much I enjoy being able to access any point on any building on the property. I've used it three times in the past week.

Here's a picture of my sons painting the barn:

I have twelve frames that I bought from ScaffoldMart.com in 2019. There are several online vendors that all seem to be competitive, at that time they had the best deal but it was pretty close.

They are the standard frames that are 5' deep and 7' wide, but I went with ones that are only 5' high rather than the more common 6'8. The smaller frames are about 40 pounds and I find they're easy to set up with one person, you can stand securely on a platform while you lift the frame up shoulder high to do the next level. With taller frames you're lifting over your head to assemble and it gets dicey. I've been thinking about getting some taller frames to use on the bottom level. One drawback of the 5' frames is you have to duck to go under them which gets old if you're doing a lot of side-to-side work.

I got ladder style frames, so there are four levels that you can put a plank on each frame, and two levels where you can put three planks down and cover the entire floor. I bought three of the aluminum planks which I use for my main work areas. I also find it handy to have a bunch of 8' 2x12's as you can see in the picture to have a place to stand while going up and down, I don't like them for working from though. I put a piece of 1x2 on the end so they can't slip off.

Note that I have screw jacks on all of the feet. This allows me to get another 18" of lift in addition to making sure everything is level. In the foreground is a 2x8 with two screw jacks bolted to it, that's the way I like to have the base Note also the outriggers at the bottom which make it more stable. The ground around the barn is very uneven and the outriggers come in very handy.

In the picture the left side is on higher ground. I built a crib out of 4x4's to get even with the second level of the rest of the scaffold.

I bought one set of guardrails which is on the top in the picture. You can use regular frames as guardrails, but these are lighter and cheaper.

In 2019 the whole setup was about $1250 and shipping was about $450. I'm sure it's more now.

Once you get the base set it goes up pretty quickly. This barn is 35 feet to the peak so I wanted to be stable so I spent a fair bit of time on the bottom row. Once the bottom was set we moved frames around as needed. The next time I might treat myself to a few more frames so I don't have to move so much. On today's job I was fixing a soffit about 20' off the ground so it was simpler, it took about an hour to set up the scaffold, three rows plus the guardrails.

 

[MossRoad]

I’m still looking for a used man lift in need of repair.