Scaffold Tower Hire Prices 2026: What 71 UK Hire Shops Charge
We searched for tool and tower hire in 321 towns and cities across Great Britain and found 562 hire shops and hire firms. 71 of them publish what they charge for a scaffold tower. Here's what hiring one costs in 2026, height by height.
Co-founder, Less.co.uk
Key findings
£114
is the average price to hire a double-width tower with a 4.2 m platform for a week, including VAT.
£95 to £145
is the typical range for a week's hire (the middle 50% of prices).
£72
a week for a small tower with a 2.2 m platform, and £144 for a 6.2 m platform.
£79
for a single day's hire of a 4.2 m tower, 69% of the weekly price.
£120
a week at the 15 shops that say outright the 4.2 m is the platform height.
65%
of hire shops show tower prices without VAT, so the price you see isn't the price you pay.
15%
is the damage waiver every shop that gave a figure adds to the hire charge.
71
hire shops with published tower prices, found across 321 towns and cities.
Source: Less.co.uk Scaffold Tower Hire Price Survey 2026, prices published by UK hire shops, 30 October 2026. Prices include VAT.
What a scaffold tower costs to hire in 2026
The tower most homeowners need is a double-width aluminium tower with a 4.2 m platform. From it you can reach about 6.2 m, above the gutters on most two-storey houses. Across the 31 hire shops with a weekly price for one, the average (median) is £114 a week including VAT. Half charge less and half charge more. The typical range (the middle 50% of prices) is £95 to £145.
Hire shops don't all measure towers the same way. Most list the platform height, but some give the working height (about 2 m more) or the handrail height (about 1 m more), and some just say "4.2 m tower". We converted working and handrail heights to platform heights, and counted towers with no label as platform heights, as most shops that do label theirs use the platform. The 15 shops that say outright that the price is for a 4.2 m platform charge £120 a week on average, so the true price for this size may be nearer that.
Local hire shops charge £103 a week on average (25 shops), and the national and multi-region hire firms £121 (6 firms). Most shops (65%) show prices without VAT. Among the 22 that say either way, the average is £119.
Prices by tower height
Each extra metre of height costs more. Prices for each height come from the same shops' price lists.
| Platform height | Average a week | Shops |
|---|---|---|
| 2.2 m (0 to 2.7 m) | £72 | 23 |
| 3.2 m (2.7 to 3.7 m) | £85 | 19 |
| 4.2 m (3.7 to 4.7 m) | £114 | 31 |
| 5.2 m (4.7 to 5.7 m) | £114 | 19 |
| 6.2 m (5.7 to 7.2 m) | £144 | 25 |
| 8.2 m (7.2 to 12.2 m) | £170 | 19 |
Day, weekend and week
Shops that list a day rate for a 4.2 m tower charge £79 on average (19 shops), and a weekend hire costs £82 (9 shops). So a day costs about 69% of a week, and some shops only hire towers by the week. A single-width tower with a 4.2 m platform costs £108 a week on average (15 shops): many shops charge the same for either width.
What this means if you're hiring a tower
- About £114 a week is a fair price for a 4.2 m tower. Above about £145, you're paying more than three in four shops charge.
- Ask whether the height is the platform, working or handrail height before you compare prices.
- Add VAT to prices shown without it, and ask about delivery and the 15% damage waiver many shops add.
- Hire by the week if the job could run past a day.
- Get prices from at least three hire shops.
Rather have a scaffolder do it?
Tell us about the job and local scaffolders will get in touch with prices. Free, with no obligation to book.
How we collected and checked the prices
On 30 October 2026 we ran 679 searches for scaffold tower, tool and plant hire across 321 towns and cities in ten regions of Great Britain. From 3,598 search results we found 562 hire shops and hire firms. We left out directories, marketplaces and shops that only sell towers, and used only prices from the shops themselves. Where one business trades under several names, we counted it once.
The standard job is a week's hire of a double-width aluminium tower with a 4.2 m platform (3.7 to 4.7 m). Each price was read and checked against its source, and prices set out in tables or menus were read a second time from the shop's live prices. Then a separate checker re-read every 4.2 m price from scratch, without seeing the first reading: 31 of 36 matched, and a third check of the other 10 led to 9 corrections, mostly towers whose height turned out to mean something else.
Each shop counts once. The average price we give is the median: the middle price when all the shops' prices are lined up, so a few very high or low prices can't skew it. Prices shown without VAT have 20% added. We found too few local shops with a 4.2 m price in any one region to give regional figures. These are advertised prices, which aren't always what people pay. More detail is on our methodology page.
Download the data
The CSV has every figure in this article. It doesn't name any hire shop.
How to cite this
Source: Less.co.uk Scaffold Tower Hire Price Survey 2026, https://less.co.uk/blog/research/scaffold-tower-hire-prices-2026
You're welcome to use these figures in articles and research, as long as you credit Less.co.uk and link to this page. Journalists can find contact details on our press page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does scaffold tower hire cost in 2026?
How much is a scaffold tower for a day?
Why do tower prices vary so much between hire shops?
Are scaffold tower hire prices shown with VAT?
Do you run a hire shop? You can send us your prices directly. As submissions build up, we'll add them alongside the published prices in future editions of this research.
Our earlier surveys covered skip hire, EICR and boiler service prices. For help choosing and using a tower, see our scaffold tower hire guide.