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Hardie siding lift or carrier

confused2 | Posted in General Discussion on December 2, 2008 12:45pm

Can anyone suggest a simple, yet effective, way to carry Hardie siding up several flights of exterior stairs? Ideally, we are trying to either figure out some kind of conveyer belt system, or a roller slide with a winch at the top or a pulley lift or ???

We are not keen to have to manually carry it up a couple of peices at a time, but even if we have to – I saw a siding carrier, but when I contacted the manufacturer – it had been discontinued. Are there other ways to easily handle this stuff?

I have attached a picture of the location & how the LVL’s got carried up. Just gotta think this creative bunch can come up withh a better plan than break our backs.

Thanks for all ideas.

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Replies

  1. alwaysoverbudget | Dec 02, 2008 01:14am | #1

    see if you can get a drywall company to buy it from or if they would rent the truck and driver out. they can put it about anywhere it will fit.larry

    if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?

    1. confused2 | Dec 02, 2008 06:22pm | #5

      We have purchased it already, but do you mean a drywall lift of somesort might work to get it off the dock to the first level deck?

  2. mikeroop | Dec 02, 2008 02:58am | #2

    Yea what he said! post some more pics as you go will ya? I'm curious as to what's going on  there. Does it have a view?

    1. JDale | Dec 02, 2008 03:03am | #3

      I'm curious as to what type of ground cover you are using, what is all that white stuff?  Was 63 and sunny here today.

      I have not found any east way to carry hardi-plank.

      John

      1. confused2 | Dec 02, 2008 06:51pm | #7

        We have very special ground cover that allows us to walk on water - heck we even drive over water. A unique experience.

        63 & sunny huh, well, we have sunny.

    2. confused2 | Dec 02, 2008 06:45pm | #6

      It has the best views! The photo in this post was taken last March. You can find some from other threads.

      http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=108718.49

      http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=106358.34

      We've had a lot progress since.

      1. mikeroop | Dec 03, 2008 02:01am | #12

        Thanks for the link. thats quite the place you got there!

        1. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 02:15am | #13

          Thanks, while we love it, it has been a more of a challenge than we anticipated. We are 5 years into it and wearing out our knees & backs - which is why I am seeking a lazy way out to get the siding up -that Hardie stuff is heavy.

          1. cut50 | Dec 03, 2008 03:54am | #14

            We built on a very steep hill for summer cabin, everything in the boat, out of the boat,and then up a mean hill, no stairs. Ansewer was a track, 2 2x6 nailed like a corner to make one side of the track. Then came the wagon to hold the stuff, the wagon changed a little depending what we were moving. An uncle working at a mine got a hand crank winch, which was slow, about 1 beer per run.

            This is just food for your thoughts, big tree, good size winch, if you were closer I`d run winch  = lots lots of beers.

            Good Luck              

          2. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 07:37am | #22

            Yah - onto the truck, off the truck, onto the boat, off the boat, onto the dock, up the stairs, then the hilll. Fun ain't it!  Ah- I see you are in Smithers - I know people in Houston - or used to be. Nice country!  

          3. cut50 | Dec 06, 2008 05:00am | #30

            We are just over Hungery Hill from Houston. Had another thought for the siding,some of it can be cut to size before going up the hill, depending on how you are doing corners.There is a lot of "stuff" to go up in the first few years.And yet another thought, a working bar b q., many hands make for lite work load. And just one more, saw in the pic of the dock. What looked like a side hill going from the left to right and ending at the top of the stairs. If it`s  ok for walking that would be my trail, so much easier on the back than stairs. About 3-4 at a time with 2 people, just finished a job with hardie siding and that was only good way to do it. It`s like a wet noodle until it`s on wall.

              

               

          4. confused2 | Dec 07, 2008 07:53pm | #31

            Cutting to size would certainly make some it more manageable - good idea. The path you speak of is not walkable, it is where the next fllight of stairs will go, to a small landing, then turn back left &  up onto the "mid level' deck. These will be the permanent 'nice' stairs'once construction is over. From the mid level deck, it is just a hill, which is walkable (except after rains it get very slippery).

            A work party would be great - but in the winter nobody seems to want the make the 2 hour drive out, drive across the ice roads, work in the cold & drive back home again. Even beer & steak hasn't been enough to entice!

            Not really familiar with Houston - just know 2 sets of folks that lived there for several years. Then we were touring Cape Breton island, stayed at a B&B and had breakfast with folks  - who were from Houston. It's a small world afterall.

          5. RalphWicklund | Dec 07, 2008 08:59pm | #32

            Personally, I wouldn't recommend precutting. You are going to want to maximize the coverage you get from the product and the way to do it is to use the cut off from the previous course to start the next.

            If you are cutting away from the installation point you run the risk of miscutting, having to cut a second time to make a fit and to lose track of cutoffs that could be used in certain places to avoid waste.

            I read the post where someone recommended carrying each piece up by hand. Two are the most one person should handle and four by two people - unless they are young and large<G>. You have been up and down those steps numerous times already schlepping material so divide the number of pieces you can carry into the actual number that have to get to the top and see how many trips you have to make.

            I put up over 3,000sf on this building myself, lifting them two at a time to each platform level. The only thing that bends easier than Hardie is cooked noodles so you have to carry them on edge, too.

            View Image

            If I had your location I would construct a mechanical conveyance to move large amounts of Hardie at one time and could be used for the rest of your project as well. Even if you did opt to precut, your total number of trips up those steps is still going to be determined by the amount of weight you can effectively carry. So whether it's two full planks at a time or a number of precuts equaling that weight, you're still going to be going up and down and up and down and up and down, etc.

            Edited 12/7/2008 1:01 pm ET by RalphWicklund

  3. LIVEONSAWDUST | Dec 02, 2008 03:08am | #4

    hire some young strong backed day laborers

  4. RalphWicklund | Dec 02, 2008 07:35pm | #8

    Are you looking to move Hardie Lap siding or the 4x8 sheet goods?

    How did you get all the rest of the material up the hill?

    If you are using lap siding (Hardiplank) consider building a reverse aqueduct with ripped OSB, add some 2x sides to contain a 12' sled that will hold a stack of plank and pull the sled up the aqueduct with a capstan type winch. Toss on some powdered wax like is used for that shuffleboard like game to reduce the friction. Keep the run as straight as possible to reduce binding.

    1. confused2 | Dec 02, 2008 07:52pm | #9

      Lap siding, and the other materials was man handled up. Some was done by day laborers, but they are hard to get / unreliable and not very delicate in handling stuff. We think the Hardie (prepainted), would end up very damaged and lots of it broken using them.

      "reverse aqueduct"  - like a slide? with a sled? that might work, and never thought of shuffleboard wax. Great idea. Thanks.

    2. User avater
      popawheelie | Dec 03, 2008 06:29am | #17

      I think the word you are looking for is a sluice. I think loggers and miners use them.

      If you took 2x4s and crossed them to make an X the two bottom legs would be cut to fit the terrain and the top part would be sided with osb on the inside of the 2xs. The top part of the x would only be on about 12-18". Just enough to support the siding.

      I think you could drag it up this. The wax would help a lot. You could build a carrier for the siding.  

      Here's a pic of a logging sluice.

      Edited 12/2/2008 10:34 pm ET by popawheelie

      Edited 12/2/2008 10:35 pm ET by popawheelie

    3. User avater
      popawheelie | Dec 03, 2008 06:38am | #18

      Here's the pic I tried to post after the fact. I'ts a logging sluice. You can see the tops of the braces that x and continue down to the ground.

      1. RalphWicklund | Dec 03, 2008 07:10am | #19

        Aqueduct <G>

        View Image

        Edited 12/2/2008 11:11 pm ET by RalphWicklund

        1. User avater
          popawheelie | Dec 03, 2008 07:25am | #20

          So did you mean an aquaduct or a sluice? I can see how they could be confused. Both the miners and the loggers used water as a lubricant. ;^)

          1. RalphWicklund | Dec 03, 2008 07:47am | #24

            Immaterial.

            Used first analogy that came to mind but all I was attempting to describe was a long inclined trough with a flat bottom and sides to contain a sled to move material up the hill.

            Straighter and with smoother sides than this: (and no water)

            View Image

            Edited 12/2/2008 11:48 pm ET by RalphWicklund

          2. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 07:55am | #25

            Wow,  that helps visualize how we could make it work. Thx.

          3. RalphWicklund | Dec 03, 2008 08:12am | #26

            OK, design change.

            Put some wheels under the sled and maybe some on the sides to keep the sled from digging in to the retaining walls.

            We rode the subway in Montreal and the cars had rubber tires and sideways mounted wheels to keep the train in the groove.

          4. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 06:38pm | #29

            Yes, I had thought about wheels or rollers. Putting them on the sides like the subways I had not. Thx.

          5. Marson | Dec 03, 2008 03:12pm | #27

            Hate to be a wet blanket, but the only practical way to move Hardie is with a forklift of some type. Any device that involves loading siding piece by piece and then unloading piece by piece is bound to be about as slow and tedious as just carrying it up by hand--at least then you only have to pick up and set down each piece only once instead of twice. If a forklift in the form of a skidsteer with forks or a boom truck isn't available, then carry it up piece by piece. I've sided houses where the only place for the pile is down on the street at the bottom of a steep site. It's not as bad as it seems.

          6. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 06:37pm | #28

            My husband agrees with you that in the time to build a slide & sled or something and get the stuff up, he'd probably just have it done. I am worried about his back, knees, shoulders -  - I don't want to tell him he is not as young as he once was :)

            I keep thinking there is so much heavy stuff still to come up - fireplace, cultured stone etc, that it could be used for. We used an electric ladder lift contraption for the shingles and that was a god send.

  5. Houghton123 | Dec 02, 2008 08:32pm | #10

    Your site doesn't look very paved or graded, so this might not work, but: my local rental yard rents hand-cranked material lifts that go up to 24 feet. Look kinda like the front end of a forklift, if you can imagine what forklifts would have looked like if they'd been developed before the internal combustion engine (and maybe they were - no idea). If you can muscle one onto the site, and properly support the plank on the way up (I'm picturing a 2xwhatever bolted to the forks), you might could go two stories that way.

    When I did the flat roof on my tankhouse (24 feet from the ground), we bolted angled lookouts to the joists that stuck out about two feet and up (above the roof surface) about five feet, attached small pulleys at the ends, and c-clamped ropes to the plywood panels. With two of us pulling, we could get a sheet of ply up right quick - although, with only two of us working, one of us then had to go back down the ladder and clamp the ropes to the next sheet. Still, it was a lot safer than the alternatives, and pulling on ropes while standing up put little strain on our backs.

    Off-topic story: I used a material lift to install the upper kitchen cabinets in our kitchen remodel. When I went to rent it and explained why I was renting it, the guy at the counter asked, "which size do you want? We have three sizes. Do you want the 24-footer?" I declined that one, explaining that I planned to put the kitchen cabinets in their normal locations, rather than 24 feet in the air. Glad I did: the smallest size they rented cleared our back door by 1/2" on each side.

    1. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 01:40am | #11

       - No the site is not paved or graded - we are water access or winter ice road.  Will look into logistics of getting a material lift onto the dock. Thanks for the idea

  6. User avater
    Dam_inspector | Dec 03, 2008 04:39am | #15

    Get one of these. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1h3vcLybfA

    1. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 07:41am | #23

      That is so cool! Except its green. Hubby used to have a Versatile, Big Bud & Case dealership in a former life. Green was the enemy.

  7. KFC | Dec 03, 2008 05:31am | #16

    I guess one of those hillevator deals would be too much, huh?  you could have it installed in the location you'd want after the place was built.  by then you might need it.

    k

    1. confused2 | Dec 03, 2008 07:25am | #21

      Actually had a quote done when we started 5 years ago, $18K, so too much for our budget.... and it was ugly as sin in the only place they felt they could put it. Now... that I am 5 years older.... I think maybe it would have been a good investment. By the time we finish this place, I will be too old & decrepted to get up the stairs. :)

  8. wrudiger | Dec 07, 2008 10:49pm | #33

    Go Medieval!  Here is how they got supplies to the top of a rock in the middle of a bay back in the day - Mont Saint-Michel.  These were the best pics I could find, the principle is the same as what's been talked here.  Build a track (sluice, whatever) to guide the material-handling sled (best if on wheels).  Winch at the top.  This one just happens to be people-powered - think human hampster wheel.  You still climb a whole lot of steps, but with the mechanical leverage end up lifting a whole lot at a time.  The winch: 

    View Image

     

    and the track for the lift (wheel is in the opening at the top)

    View Image

    1. confused2 | Dec 08, 2008 06:22pm | #34

      Lots of good & creative ideas, just what I wanted. I 'll let you know how we made out.

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