Whether you are a property owner who needs to undertake repairs on hard to reach areas of your house or unit, or a commercial business that needs to use an elevated work platform on a building, then you will need to hire some kind of high reach access platform.
When it comes to high reach access platforms, many people think of scaffold hire as the best and only solution. Scaffold hire does have its advantages and disadvantages. In many cases using a cherry picker instead of scaffolding hire, can be faster, cheaper and more appropriate for the job.
What is a scaffold?
A scaffold is a temporary work structure set up to support access or working platforms. Scaffolding is commonly used in construction work, to give workers a safe and stable work platform when work cannot be done at ground level or on a finished floor.
Scaffolding hire is a complex structure of individual components, including tubes, couplers, frames and materials that when assembled form a scaffold.
Scaffolding work must be undertaken by a person holding an appropriate class of high-risk work license. This definition applies whenever the term 'scaffolding work' is used in this Guide.Cherry Picker Hire vs Scaffolding Hire:
The cherry picker was originally conceived for fruit picking as its name suggests. Over time the cherry picker has had many technological advancements and are now one of the most versatile and efficient pieces of equipment when it comes to elevated work platforms. A cherry picker specialisies in reaching hard to reach areas that are quite difficult to access and maintain, with speed and efficiency.
If you want to engage in gutter cleaning, fascia repair, or trimming of high tree branches, then hiring a cherry picker can readily provide you with the needed elevated work platform to complete these jobs. Using a cherry picker instead of a ladder, or makeshift scaffolding structure, is a very efficient and viable alternative for accomplishing these types of jobs.
Ease of Use and Setup:
When it comes to ease of setup and use, the cherry picker wins over hiring a traditional scaffold. Traditional scaffold hire setup takes many hours to setup. Hiring a truck mounted cherry picker instead, allows to quickly position the work platform in a location that is best suited for reaching the area where you need to work. In fact, there is very little setup required with a cherry picker. This also means that removing the elevated work platform setup is also easy. A cherry picker has a highly maneuverable work bucket platform that is controlled via a hydraulic arm. It can be controlled and positioned from the ground or from the work bucket. On the other hand, traditional scaffolding hire setups are difficult and take hours to erect. Scaffolding setups take more than one person and can be costly.
Situations when hiring a cherry picker is better than scaffolding hire:
- If a job requires one or two people to complete the work.
- If the work required does not take a significant amount of time to complete. (eg: Days or weeks)
- If the work is in a hard to reach or obscure places.
- If you have a limited window of opportunity to complete the job (eg: a busy road, or limited times of the day).
Applications and Duration of Use:
These are just some of the many applications for hiring a cherry picker.
- Signage – If you require new sign to be put up or existing signs changed then a cherry picker is best suited for this application.
- Telephone and Power Line Maintenance – A very common role of a cherry picker. In this application, the linemen can maneuver and position the working tub to be very close to work area without endangering themselves. With elevation and other directional controls situated in the working tub, the lineman operating the controls can prevent power line and cable entanglements.
- Building Construction and Maintenance – In building maintenance, hiring a cherry picker is quite useful for many uses, including cleaning or maintaining the building facades and installing building materials in high reach areas.
- Home and Garden – If you have a hard to reach job at your house or unit, hiring a cherry picker can be a great solution. Painting, installing guttering, hedge trimming, or access to any hard to reach part of your house or building.
Generally, all these applications have short-term work durations. The benefit is the vehicle can be moved from one location to another until the work is completed.
Price:
The cost of hiring scaffolding is often dictated by several factors. Hence, before opting for scaffolding hire, you need to assess the following factors:
- The height and size of the work area.
- How many levels of scaffolds would be needed?
- Whether there is a need for scaffolding roof cover.
- Access issues.
- If there is a need to bridge areas.
- The quality and quantity of materials.
- Your geographical location.
The other factor that can increase the costs of scaffolding hire include the type of materials used for the scaffolding. There are four types of materials that are being used for scaffolding today. These materials include the following:
- Tube and Coupler component
- Timber
- prefabricated modular system
- H-frame/facade modular system
Safety:
When working on any elevated platform like a ladder, scaffolding, or cherry picker, it is imperative that you adhere to safety requirements and guidelines. Mobile aerial work platforms like the cherry pickers are vehicles fitted with a working tub or bucket at the end of an extendable arm or boom. These vehicles are mostly used as external work platforms for accomplishing work high above the ground.
Working on a lofty position comes with many risks. These risks can sometimes result in accidents and injuries. To avoid or limit such risks, companies often implement strict safety guidelines and standards for workers who are using scaffolding and mobile aerial platforms like the cherry picker. Companies also educate their employees concerning safe work practices, and some of these safe work practices include the following:
- Never move the vehicle while the boom is extended.
- Workers that will man the working tub should check and wear the restraining belt and/or harness along with its lanyard.
- Cherry picker operators should maintain a clearance between themselves and any potential overhead hazards such as power lines, joist, and beams.
- Always treat power lines as live or energized and maintain distance.
- Engage the wheel brake and deploy the outriggers before any boom operation.
- Observe the vehicle’s or boom’s load limits and provide an allowance for the combined weight of people, materials, and tools on the tub.
A cherry picker is a great alternative to scaffolding hire in many situations, like maintenance and repair of hard-to-reach areas. Evaluate beforehand the task at hand based on the abovementioned parameters. As you evaluate the task at hand using these criteria, you can then decide on whether the task you need to do is best accomplished by hiring a cherry picker instead of scaffolding hire.
If you have any questions about hiring a cherry picker, give us a call today. We are happy to help you decide what the best solution is for your application.
