What to check before you hire anyone

1. SOLAS CSCS cards — and the right ones

Scaffolding, both basic and advanced, is a safety-critical task under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013. Anyone erecting, altering or dismantling it must hold a Construction Skills Certification Scheme card issued through SOLAS.

Here is the one that catches people out: UK construction skills cards are not accepted in the Republic of Ireland. A crew arriving with UK cards is not qualified to erect scaffolding here — no matter how experienced they are, and no matter how well the scaffold looks when it's up. Only SOLAS CSCS counts.

Ask to see them. Ask whether they are basic or advanced, because that determines what the crew is permitted to build. Check the expiry dates.

2. Insurance you have actually seen

Ask for the certificate. Not a reassurance on the phone — the certificate.

Public liability, and look at the level of cover. Employers' liability, covering their own crew. And check it is in date, because a lapsed policy is worth precisely nothing on the day you need it.

Scaffworld Ireland is fully insured and we send the certs on request, same day. A company that won't is telling you something.

3. Inspection — the seven-day rule

This is the most practical thing a customer can check, and almost nobody does.

Under the General Application Regulations, a working platform from which a person could fall two metres or more cannot be used unless it has been inspected within the previous seven days. It must also be inspected after anything that could affect its stability — high winds, an impact, an alteration. That inspection has to be carried out by a competent person, and it has to be recorded.

So ask: "Who inspects it, how often, and where is the record kept?"

We carry out safety checks on our scaffolding every week, for as long as it is standing, and we check it again after any weather or any change to the structure. That is not us going above and beyond. That is the legal standard — and a great many outfits are not meeting it.

A reputable company answers that question instantly. A cowboy tells you it will be grand.

4. Did they come and look at the job?

We always come out and look at the job before we start. Every time.

Ground conditions, access, overhead lines, the state of the surface the scaffold will stand on, where the plant can get in — none of that is visible from a phone call. A company that quotes a scaffold sight-unseen is guessing, and you will pay for the guess later, in variations or in delays.

Our ten-hour job finished early because we had already walked it.

5. Do they own their own plant?

We have our own telehandler when a job needs it. No waiting on a hire company's diary, no third-party lead time, no day lost because the machine didn't turn up.

On a job with a hard deadline, that is often the whole difference.

6. Will they work to you once it's up?

A scaffold is not a fit-and-forget item. The job changes, the trades change, and the scaffold has to change with it.

Any adjustments, we work to the client's requests. That is how a scaffold stays useful for the length of a build instead of becoming an obstacle halfway through it.

Red flags — walk away

• Cash, no paperwork, start tomorrow. The three-word summary of every scaffolding story that ends badly.

• They won't send the insurance cert. There is only ever one reason for that.

• UK cards only. Not valid here. This is not a technicality.

• No mention of inspection. If nobody has told you who inspects it and when, nobody is inspecting it.

• A quote with no site visit.

• A price dramatically below everyone else. Steel, labour, insurance and inspection are not optional. If someone is far cheaper, ask which of those four they have removed.

  
  

The six questions to ask before you book

Ask these on the phone. You will know inside two minutes who you are dealing with.

1. Are your scaffolders SOLAS CSCS carded — basic or advanced?

2. Can you email me your public and employers' liability certificates today?

3. Who inspects the scaffold, how often, and how is it recorded?

4. Will you come and look at the site before quoting?

5. Who do I ring if something changes or the weather turns?

6. What is this scaffold designed to carry?

Any company worth hiring will be glad you asked. They are the questions that separate us from whoever quoted you a few hundred euro less.

Scaffworld Ireland

We cover every part of Ireland — hire and direct. Builders, private clients, developers and commercial clients. One call, one supplier, scaffold up when we said it would be up.

Fully insured. SOLAS CSCS carded crews. Weekly safety inspections. Our own plant. Site visit before every quote.

Ten hours to scaffold a façade. We did it in seven and a half.

Call us on 086- 3426-749 — or send us the job and we'll come and look at it.