How long can scaffolding stay up?

There is no legal maximum. A scaffold can stand for as long as the job needs it, provided it keeps being inspected, stays tied, and any highway licence stays valid. What decides the length in practice is the programme, the hire term agreed at survey and, on the pavement, the licence period. Here is how each one works.

The honest answer

Neither the Work at Height Regulations 2005 nor the Highways Act 1980 says a scaffold must come down after a set period. What the Regulations do say, in regulation 12, is that while a scaffold is up it must be inspected after assembly and before use, after any exceptional circumstance liable to jeopardise its safety, and, for a working platform used for construction work from which a person could fall two metres or more, within the previous seven days before it is used. The HSE's guidance on scaffolds adds that ties come out only in stages as it is struck. The scaffold tags guide covers the record behind each inspection.

So the limit is practical. Keep it inspected, keep it tied, keep the licence live.

What sets the term

The programme. The scaffold comes down when the last trade that needs it has finished. On a roof that is the roofer. On a loft conversion it is usually the renderer on the dormer cheeks, weeks after the roofer has left.

The hire term agreed at survey. The HSE lists the period the scaffold is required to be in place among the information the user should give the scaffold contractor at the planning stage. We ask at survey, and the one price covers the erect, the agreed hire, the planned adaptations and the dismantle. The how it works page runs through the stages.

The highway licence. Under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, nobody may erect or retain scaffolding on or over a highway, which includes the pavement, in connection with building work unless the highway authority has issued a licence and its terms are complied with. The Act lets the authority set whatever terms it thinks fit, and in practice authorities issue licences for a fixed period and renew them on application. Retaining a scaffold past its licence is the same offence under section 169(5) as putting one up without one. The licence holder must also keep it lit from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise, under section 169(4)(a), unless no part of the scaffold is within 18 inches of the carriageway and no part over the footway is lower than 8 feet, in which case section 169(6) lifts that duty. The authority is Essex Highways for most of the county, Southend-on-Sea City Council in Southend, Thurrock Council in Thurrock and the London Borough of Havering for Upminster and Rainham.

Ties and weather. The longer a scaffold stands, the more weather it sees. A seafront elevation in Southend-on-Sea takes wind that a sheltered street inland does not. Debris netting and sheeting add to the wind load; the HSE says never to sheet or net a scaffold without telling the people who designed and erected it.

Neighbours and planning conditions. Some planning permissions carry conditions on working hours or temporary works. A scaffold that has to stand in or over a neighbour's garden needs that neighbour's agreement before it is priced. Either can fix the term.

Typical durations by job type

Ranges of time from typical jobs, not promises. No two houses are the same, which is why we survey.

• Roof strip and re-cover. One to three weeks for a semi. Longer with a chimney rebuild or a temporary roof (tin hat) for a full re-timber. See roofing scaffolding.
• Render. Two to four weeks. Base coat, top coat, curing time, then paint. Wet or cold weather stretches it.
• Loft conversion. Six to ten weeks. Up before the roof is opened, adapted for the dormer and the steels, down once the dormer is weathertight and its cheeks are finished.
• Extension. Six to twelve weeks. First lift when the brickwork passes head height, raised as the walls go up, held for the roof, down after the render or brick cleaning.

What extends a hire

Weather first. A roofer will not strip in rain and a renderer will not coat in frost. Then trade sequencing: the window fitter slips a fortnight, so the render waits, so the scaffold waits. Then a failed inspection: a tie removed by another trade, boards moved, a guardrail dropped. The scaffold cannot be used until it is put right and re-inspected. Then the job changing: roof windows added, a second dormer.

Each is an adaptation or an extension, handled the same way. Ring the number on the tag. We adapt, re-inspect and re-tag before your crew goes back on, and the extension to the hire is agreed at the time. Tell us as early as you know. A scaffold that runs long by surprise is the one that ends up outside its licence.

When it comes down

Dismantle happens when the last trade signs off and you tell us. The strike needs the same ground the erect needed: access for the lorry, room to lower and stack tube and boards, and the pavement, so the highway licence must still be live on the day. The HSE's guidance says scaffolds should never be dismantled over people or busy pavements, so the strike is done inside a segregated area at quieter times.

If a scaffold outside your house seems abandoned

Ring the number on the tag. If there is no tag, ask your builder whose scaffold it is. If it stands on the pavement, the highway authority holds the licence record and can tell you whether it is in date. Under section 169(5) of the Highways Act 1980 it is an offence for any person to erect or retain a scaffold on the highway without a licence, or to fail without reasonable excuse to comply with the terms of one, so the offence attaches to whoever erects or retains it, in practice the contractor who applied for the licence. A householder is not exempt if they are the one retaining it. If the builder has gone quiet, the number on the tag is still the quickest route to getting it down.