Get the house painted while scaffolding up?

[greenishfingers]

Moved into our first home (two storey Victorian terrace that comes right up to pavement) not long before our little DD (6 months) was born. The place is ex-rental and needs a lot doing to it. We've somehow managed to get ourselves together to arrange for work on our roof to be done (damp corners on both sides in the loft room!).

Predictably, since the baby came along, the well-coordinated renovation project we had planned has become a lot more improvised than we would like. The front of the house needs repainting and I'm wondering whether we need to get it done directly after the roof work, to take advantage of the scaffolding being up.

I'm a complete newbie to house stuff so would appreciate some advice - does scaffolding help or hinder someone painting the house? Is it the done thing for one trader to use scaffolding arranged by another? Is there any advantage in having one set of scaffolding up longer (not sure how it's usually priced)? If it's up, is painting the front of the house something we could consider doing ourselves? Might it be difficult to coordinate the roof and painting work?

Any thoughts would be welcome. I'd love to have the front sorted out as it looks a little ugly at the moment, but I don't really feel ready to pick colours! If it won't save any money to do it I'll happily leave it for a while.

We had our house re-pebble dashed, and then got painters in to decorate the whole outside (detached).
Although the pebble dashers arranged for the scaffolding to be put up, we paid the company direct, and we could have it up as long as we wanted. I think it is the labour of erecting it that costs - most companies have enough poles etc to not miss what's required for a single house.
Our house is quite tall (Edwardian) and side access in particular is limited for ladders so it made sense to use the scaffolding while it was up. The decorators seemed quite happy to use it.

Ooh, thanks - makes sense that they would charge that way. If the cost is in the labour then maybe it won't be too much hassle to use it for both jobs after all!

I'd have thought that scaffolding set up for roof repairs wouldn't be much use for painting the house, as it'll be at or near roof height.

We had our roof replaced last year, and then had the outside of the house re-rendered. The scaffolding had to be changed around by very grumpy men between the two jobs. But they were in no hurry to get it back afterwards, I had to chase them to take it away in the end.

Because the scaffolding was still up in the rendering arrangement I painted the outside myself after the plasterers had finished. It was laborious but quite easy, apart from the very high gable at the front which was terrifying.