DIY Portable Construction Hoist

Several suggestions, the first being find a supplier with a delivery truck mounted hoist. A good operator can put the whole load near halfway through a window.

Loose the counterweight. Put a stretcher on the other side of the door to the balcony with a cable attachment to your hoist, as well as lateral guy wires to a 2 meter long by thick plank which will also spread the load on the deck. Another guy to the edge of the balcony for a 4 way support. Your bracing from the central column to the crane arm should go both directions. Getting fancy you could use a piece of cold rolled steel for a core, to extend from the top of the hoist for your backstay cable. Put a thrust bearing below the diagonals to the crane arm and above the lateral guy wires for a pivot. Some expert welding, with a substantial gussets at the top and bearing location. A cable clamp (I use the kind the power company uses on their anchor cables. Smack 'em with a hammer and they will loosen up for adjustment) and some turnbuckles will make it all adjustable.

I need someone to help me get this fracking Vista to work with my drawing programs and CAD, or I could draw it for you. Maybe 'Vista for Dummies', or better yet some Sheila that also does computers.

I've seen furniture movers on the continent using an almost vertical conveyer to move stuff from the van to a balcony. I guess you can buy them somewhere.

DON'T DO IT. It is not worth the risk. These can be bought, ready made and certtified for a few hundred Euros / Pounds /Dollars.

Chas

There are many Builder's Hoist mfrs. in China, you can search them on Alibaba search engine. Also there are some Spainish mfrs. but they are expensive.

Suresh Sharma.

Don't even think of building your own hoist for use on a construction job where you are not the owner of the property. You are in for a world of hurt should workers' compenstaion find out you are using a home made unapproved hoist. Your best bet if you need something is to buy something approved for that use. Just a friendly warning.

If you 'Google' "laddervator", you will find several sources for a portable, gas engine-powered hoist that is used mainly by roofers to hoist materials onto a roof or elevated platform. They appear to be economical and would eliminate the risk of a DIY-built device, as they are properly engineered and widely used.

hello all,

Thanks for your comments. I'm still considering them. We would much prefer an unobstrusive device which could remain in place for , typically, 2 to 6 weeks, so leaving it on the sidewalk is not really an option. I'm the owner of the buildings and I certainly will not engage in careless or dangerous activities.

After some research, I'm looking at a this very simple design I found, which was meant for bolting to the frame of a pickup truck. I would want to replace the winch with a remote controlled one:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_74569_74569

However our balconies are old style with wooden floors and metal (in one case, aluminium, which is weaker) railing. Here is an example.

Certainly I would place some large plank below the device to spread the load. But I'm still worried that it might easily tilt.

I don't quite trust the railings because they are not very high.

I would be ready to permanently bolt to the building structure 2 hooks, from which I could run cables to the device, but they might get in the way, when operating.

Is it overkill? considering that loads will remain certainely below 500 lbs and probably always below 300.

Any further comments would be appreciated.

Based on the picture you provided, I would not mount a hoist on the balcony. It would be safer to transfer the weight of your load to either the ground or the exterior wall of the building.

Since I work alone most of the time also, and don't have the funds for these excellent labor saving devices Bwire has shown, I would have to either sacrifice my back to get the job done (the pain usually goes away in a few weeks), hire a couple of people for a few hours(there are risks here too if they get hurt and I failed to shell out $1000.00 for a workmen's comp policy) or build something. Since you're at this stage it is safe to assume you have already considered the first two options.

Sometimes building a device can be more work and time than it saves, but it can be more fun and satisfying than packing drywall up stairs. For the building in your picture, I would consider a very secured cantilevered beam on the roof near the balcony to hang a winch from, you could then raise the load high enough to clear the railing, but you have to get the beam up there and have roof access. Good luck, be safe and let us know how it's going.

Hi gsour,

Here is web site of the Builder's Hoist mfr. who make hoist as shown in your sketch.

http://www.sinduent.com. You may approach them.

Suresh Sharma.

Thanks for shring. it's great

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