5 August 2026
A single slipped tile on a bungalow, reachable from a ladder with both feet on the rungs, is a ladder job. A tile halfway up a two storey roof is not, however small the tile. The rule is about safety and about doing the job properly, not about how big the repair is.
When a Ladder Is Fine
Low roofs. Anything at the eaves. Gutter clearing and small gutter repairs. A tile or two on the bottom courses of a bungalow. Quick inspections. If we can reach it with both feet on a ladder and both hands free, we will.
When It Needs Scaffold
Anything two storeys up. Anything that takes more than a few minutes. Chimneys, always: they are the highest point on the house and the work is slow. Valleys and anything in the middle of a slope. Any re roofing. The Working at Height Regulations are not optional and neither is coming home at the end of the day.
Making It Earn Its Money
If the scaffold is going up anyway, do everything that needs doing while it is there. A chimney repoint and a ridge re bed on one scaffold costs a good deal less than the two jobs six months apart. When we survey a roof we tell you everything we can see, not just the thing you called about, for exactly this reason.
Towers and Alternatives
For some jobs a mobile tower does the work of a scaffold at lower cost, and for gutters and fascias on a straightforward house it is often the right tool. We will use whichever is safe and sensible for the job and say which on the quote.