Scaffolding Hire Cost Calculator

How it is calculated

Scaffold is priced per metre of frontage per lift (level). The tool first finds the metre-lifts: units = frontage × lifts, with frontage in metres. The one-off charge is erect = units × erect rate, where the rate covers putting up and taking down. The rental is hire = units × weekly rate × weeks. The total is erect + hire. Both rates are your own quotes per metre-lift, shown in dollars; the tool does not know local prices. Frontage, lifts and weeks must be above zero, and lifts must be a whole number, so 2.5 lifts gives no result. Weeks may be fractional, and a rate of zero is allowed but a negative rate gives no result. Extras such as boards, ties, lighting or permits are not included.

Common mistakes

• Entering a weekly rate for the whole scaffold. The field is a rate per metre per lift, and the tool multiplies it by frontage and lifts, so a whole-job weekly price would be counted many times over.
• Entering the total frontage of the building when scaffold is only needed on two sides. Add up just the elevations that will be covered.
• Counting lifts as storeys, or entering a fractional number of lifts. A lift is one working platform level, usually about two metres high, so a two-storey house often needs more than two lifts, and only whole lifts are accepted.
• Pricing the minimum hire period but not the real duration. Delays are paid week by week, so use the realistic number of weeks.
• Forgetting extras: the tool covers erect, dismantle and weekly hire only, not boards, ties, protection or permits that the quote may add.