moving furniture/equipment in/out of a basement..easy way?
Didn’t know where to put this question..
I’ll be moving a number of heavy furniture pieces equipment in and out of a basement at times. Im wondering what the easiest way to do this is. The door comes from the inner garage (easy approach with 4″ high door jam (?) ) and stairs are 4′ wide down one flight.. Is there some sort of flat surface, rolling (tracks on side or ?) dolly or platform that can be constructed that would allow me to roll stuf on to it at the top and then roll off onto the basement floor at the bottom?I realize this device may be triangular and will have to collapse at the bottom for the flat basement floor roll off.. maybe some sort of electric winch that could handle the weight up and down or ? I know this sounds strange but looking for a way to move stuff regularly in and out of a basement without killing my back or going stair by stair with a hand truck.. Any ideas appreciated. Hopefully I’ve made myself and the scene relatively clear 🙂
Mike
Replies
My first thought would be some sort of sled.
What's on the steps -- carpet? Linoleum? Bare wood?
I tend to think about problems the same way as you. Over the years I've built some crazy stuff to get the job done. I'd like to say all that stuff has been great, but in truth sometimes I try to be too clever, and end up just spending time and money sometimes when I should have taken a low tech approach. Think about the problem and how much time and effort it will take you to build your "creation" vs just asking a friend or hiring a young strong helper to give you a hand for a few minutes.
After saying all that, an absolutely brilliant solution to moving heavy stuff is an appliance dolly with stair creepers. I don't own one but I can borrow one anytime I want. If you haven't used one before see if you can borrow/rent one. It's amazing what one can do with them.
Good luck!
aluminum ladder as a track....piece of 3/4 or 1 inch ply sled with 2X cleats screwed to bottom to keep it aligned....couple of screw eyes to tie things down and a hole drilled a couple inches in from upslope end to tie a rope to??????
use a come-along fastened to a 2X4 stretched across the bottom of the door opening at the top of the stairs for mechanical assist by a single person
eta: replace come-along with block & tackle if it's easier or cheaper