Croydon is the nearest large town to our yard. STAK Scaffold works out of Barnfield on War Coppice Road in Caterham, which is about eight miles down the road, so Croydon jobs get a crew that knows the streets rather than one working off a postcode and a map.
The borough covers a lot of building types. Victorian and Edwardian terraces through the inner areas, 1930s semis out towards Shirley, Sanderstead and Selsdon, post-war housing across the middle, and a town centre that has been under near-continuous redevelopment. A scaffold on a terraced street in Thornton Heath and one on a retail frontage in the centre are different jobs with different paperwork.
This is the single most useful thing to know before booking any scaffolding in the borough, and almost nobody mentions it.
If any part of the scaffold sits on the public highway, and on most Croydon terraces there is nowhere else for it to go, you need a licence from Croydon Council. So far, standard.
The part that surprises people is the duration. A Croydon scaffold licence runs for four weeks. Not three months, not the length of your build. Four weeks. The minimum period is one month and renewals have to be applied for at least seven days before the current licence expires.
Renewal is also not automatic. The council weighs other planned works in the area, events happening in the borough, and whether the original licence conditions were complied with. A scaffold that has been sitting there blocking a footway for a month with no work happening on it is not a strong renewal application.
What this means in practice is simple. On a Croydon job that touches the pavement, the licence is not an afterthought. It is a recurring monthly cost and a recurring monthly admin job, and a build that overruns needs the renewal in hand a week before it lapses. STAK handles the applications and the renewals rather than leaving them with the customer
Most Croydon enquiries come from a homeowner or a builder with a specific job in mind. Here is what each one usually needs
The most common Croydon scaffolding job by some distance, and the one with the most weather risk attached. A roof job needs a scaffold that reaches above the eaves with a proper working lift and edge protection, not a structure that stops short and leaves the roofer stretching. On a terrace it usually needs to sit on the pavement, which brings the licence into it. If the roof is coming off rather than being patched, temporary roofing is worth costing in. More on that below.
A temporary roof is a weatherproof cover built over the scaffold, so the work underneath continues whatever the weather is doing.
It earns its place on any job where the building is opened up. A reroof, a structural repair, fire or water damage reinstatement, or anything where the rafters are exposed for more than a day or two. Without one, a wet fortnight is a lost fortnight, and rain going into an open roof damages ceilings, insulation and plaster that were not part of the job.
Two things are worth knowing before specifying one.
It has to be designed in from the start, because the scaffold underneath carries it, and a structure put up for simple access will not take a temporary roof bolted on later.
And it affects the licence. A temporary roof makes the scaffold taller and usually wider, which changes what gets submitted to Croydon Council and, on a licensed frontage, potentially what it costs. Better established at survey than discovered at renewal
A short job with an awkward access problem. The chimney is usually at the highest point of the building, often on a shared party wall, and the scaffold has to get someone safely to it without loading a stack that may already be in poor condition. On a terrace this frequently means the scaffold crosses or ties near a neighbour’s property, so access needs agreeing before anyone starts rather than on the morning.
Longer jobs, usually eight to sixteen weeks, which in Croydon means the licence gets renewed at least once and often twice. The scaffold typically has to adapt as the build moves. Sections get added as the structure goes up, altered for deliveries, and partly struck as trades finish. That is normal and it is built into the way STAK prices a job, rather than treated as a variation every time something changes. Rear extensions often have easier access than the front, which sometimes means no highway licence at all if everything can be reached from the garden. Worth establishing at survey, because it changes both the cost and the start date.
These need full access to the elevation rather than a single working lift, and usually a boarded and netted structure to keep material off the pavement and the neighbours’ cars. Duration is the thing to watch. Render needs curing time between coats and paint needs dry weather, so the scaffold tends to be up longer than people expect. On a licensed frontage in Croydon that is another four-week renewal.
Croydon town centre and the district parades run to different rules again. The business trades while the work happens, so phased erection, protected shopfronts and maintained pedestrian routes are the starting point. Access scaffolds for refurbishment, support scaffolds, protection scaffolding during cladding or demolition, and external maintenance access are all covered. STAK works directly with project managers, surveyors and site supervisors and issues a written scope with documented inspections, which matters when several trades share the same structure.
Croydon town centre, South Croydon, Thornton Heath, Addiscombe, Shirley, Selsdon, Sanderstead, Purley, Coulsdon and Norbury. That covers the CR0, CR2, CR5, CR7, CR8 and CR9 postcode areas.
Sutton and the wider Surrey side are covered from the same yard, along with south west London around Putney. For jobs elsewhere in the capital, see the Areas page.
Four things move a Croydon quote more than the size of the scaffold.
Duration. Scaffold is hired, and in Croydon the licence renews monthly alongside it. A realistic programme is worth more than a cheap first week.
Access. A frontage a lorry can pull up to is a different job from one where everything is carried in.
Adaptations. Extensions and refurbishments need the scaffold altering as the build moves. That is normal and it is better priced in at the start than argued about later.
Every quote follows a free site survey and comes itemised, so the structure, the licensing and the hire period are visible separately. No estimates over the phone, because a phone estimate on a building nobody has looked at is a guess.
On most Croydon streets the scaffold ends up over a pavement that people are still using, which changes what the structure has to do beyond simply reaching the work. The footway has to stay usable. Not technically passable, but genuinely usable by someone with a pushchair, a wheelchair or a white cane, at night as well as during the day. That means the standards get boarded and netted properly, the ledgers sit where nobody walks into them, lighting goes on where the route narrows, and debris containment is designed rather than improvised.
Structures are erected in accordance with the Work at Height Regulations 2005, BS EN 12811 and current HSE guidance, following TG20 and SG4. Nothing is handed over until it has been inspected and signed off in writing, and it is re-inspected throughout the hire.
The accreditations behind that are ConstructionLine and ConstructionLine Social Value, SafeContractor, SSIP through Acclaim and DTS, Alcumus SafePQQ, Environment Agency registration and Scaffolding Association membership.
It depends entirely on where the feet land. Anything standing on the pavement or the road needs one from Croydon Council. Anything standing wholly within your own boundary does not. On a terraced street there is usually nowhere else for it to go, so most front-elevation jobs need one.
Four weeks, with a minimum period of one month. Renewals must be applied for at least seven days before the current licence expires, and renewal is not automatic. The council considers other works in the area, events in the borough, and whether the original conditions were met.
Croydon publishes its highways licence fees on its own website and they change periodically, so check the current rate. At the time of writing the published figures were £488 per four weeks per elevation, £610 where the scaffold exceeds 10 metres, plus a refundable bond based on the area of highway enclosed
Where nothing touches the highway, usually within a few days of the survey. Where a licence is needed the neighbourhood safety officer site meeting has to happen first, so the council timetable sets the date rather than the scaffold. Starting the paperwork at survey rather than after the quote is accepted saves the most time.
It depends more on access, duration and whether the highway is involved than on the size of the structure. Quotes follow a free site survey and are itemised so the scaffold, the licensing and the hire are separately visible.
The hire extends and the licence is renewed. Because Croydon licences run in four-week blocks, the renewal needs applying for a week before it lapses, which STAK tracks as part of the job.
Yes, along with South Croydon, Addiscombe, Shirley, Selsdon, Coulsdon, Norbury and the town centre, covering the CR0, CR2, CR5, CR7, CR8 and CR9 postcodes.
Yes. A temporary roof is a weatherproof cover built over the scaffold so work continues in any weather, used on reroofing, structural repair and fire or water damage reinstatement. It has to be designed in from the start because the scaffold underneath carries it, and it changes the dimensions submitted to the council on a licensed frontage.
Yes, and on most Croydon jobs it needs to be. Sections come off for deliveries, go back on for the next trade, and get altered when the roofer finds something. Because the yard is eight miles away those visits happen when they are needed rather than being batched into one trip.
Every quote starts with a free site survey. Someone comes out, looks at the building, the access and the pavement, and works out what the job actually needs, including whether a licence is involved and how that affects the start date.
Call the office on 01883 330188, or email office@stakscaffold.co.uk with a few details about the job. Lee (07802387774) and Jack (07522676940) both take calls directly if it’s easier to speak to someone on site.
