Drywall Lifts

[Bull]

I'm looking for opinions on these, specifically whether you think they are "must-have" tools or luxuries. I am hoping to hang drywall in my barn this week or next week. I don't think I can just do it solo. I have an angled ceiling on two sides and one flat area of ceiling in the center of the space. Here is an older pic that sort of shows the area:

My brother has offered to come and help me, but that means having to wait for a weekend when he is free, and I am itching to get this done before school starts.

I have considered trying to use dead-mans and temporary ledgers to support parts of the drywall sheets while my bulging muscles and octopus arms get the rest of the sheet lined up, flat to the surface, and screwed in. But I don't want to hurt myself by being stupid.

I see that cheaper lifts can be purchased on Amazon for around $150, and then more expensive USA made lifts are hundreds of dollars. Is it worth the expenditure? I have rooms in my house to gut, insulate, and refinish, but those projects are long term, so the lift would just be sitting around after this current project is wrapped up.

What do you think?

 

[Danglerb]

Doesn't HF have one? buy, use, sell.

 

[beelsr]

i have the one northern tools sells and the thing is amazing. if you order one, you'll be waiting most of the week for it to ship so waiting for the weekend (and another pair of arms) doesn't sound too bad.

if you can pick one up tomorrow, pick one up. trying to manoever sheet good by yourself is a big enough pain on the ground. one slip or mis-step and your going for a ride...

 

[deter]

Check rental prices. Figure out how many times you will need to rent one, if it will cost more than buying one... buy one

 

[canuckian]

I rented one when I put the osb up in my garage. No way I could have done the job safely by myself without it. My rental fee ended up being 3/4 of what I could have bought one for but as I have limited use for such a device, if I bought one it would just be in the way most of the times anyways.

 

[64merc]

I've never used one, but they seem to be a big help. If I were you, I would buy the cheapest one you can find that will be put into service within your timeline, and then sell it at a "loss" just to get it sold. You'll probably still come out ahead of the rental fees and you can work at your own pace. If you're like me though, you'll probably just be lazy and somehow end up keeping it.

 

[cowboy73]

I would buy a cheap one. Use it, then resell it for a little less than you paid for it. Or keep it and loan it out to family and friends for a small fee. If you collapse one down, they don't take up much space and it would come in handy later on for another project. If the job takes you longer than a day or two, the rental fees add up pretty quick.

 

[A_Pmech]

I rented one to do the ceiling in my house. By the time I was done I could have bought a good used USA lift off Craigslist for what the rental cost.

A drywall lift and a panel kicker are both lifesavers that make 1-man drywalling soooo much easier!

 

[CGarcia]

I got one on ebay about 2 years ago, it was much cheaper there than even Harborfreight. There is no way in hell I could have done my shop by myself without the thing.
Here you go http://www.ebay.com/itm/Troy-DPH11-...570?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c286ea6ba
I think thats the same seller I got mine from.

 

[sk farmer]

one way or another, you need one. buy, rent, beg, borrow or steal one. the job will be faster, easier and safer. probably end up with a better finished product also. you just need to decide what option to use. the issue in renting is that you work on the rental stores timeclock, not yours. you may be very well off to buy one and resell or rent it out yourself. they work well for other things like hanging cabinets and light fixtures also. i tried to buy one from a guy who had one for sale but in the end he wouldn't sell it and have not stumbled upon one since.

 

[JSBriggs]

Have you bought the drywall yet? Im very much a 'do it myself' guy, but a drywall contractor to haul/load/hang the board might be less expensive than you think. Have a couple companies out and give you bids. Get options for hanging only, taped, textured.

Baring that, id compare CL and harbor freight for a lift.

-Jeff

 

[ndoran]

I have done a fair bit of drywalling but hanging the stuff on your own is best not attempted.

 

[Bob C]

I have the same problem Bull. I was going to just buy one for $489. $150 on amazon? Guess I better get one then. Luckily my ceilings are all flat and at 8'.

 

[John316]

I got one on ebay about 2 years ago, it was much cheaper there than even Harborfreight. There is no way in hell I could have done my shop by myself without the thing.
Here you go http://www.ebay.com/itm/Troy-DPH11-...570?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c286ea6ba
I think thats the same seller I got mine from.

I also bought one of these when I completely gutted and installed sheetrock on a 2000 sq ft house by myself. The lift made it possible, safer and lot easier. The great part was that most stores (including HF) sell these for about $100 more, so I actually sold it on craigslist for a small profit when I was finished with it.

You will need a hardhat though. If the brake were to fail it could cause a serious head injury.... not that I don't trust the Chinese of course

 

[Danglerb]

I'll second the check on prices from a contractor. My son and I were eating lunch a couple weeks ago the table next to use were all dry wall contractors bit, discussing their low profit margin despite buying in quantity directly from the manufacturer.

I am very cheap, and very DIY, but somebody else can do the dry wall, especially if you want the end result to look nice.

 

[e-tek]

I would do as per Danglerb's initial post. I rented one to do my shop and would buy one if I had to do it again. They are under $119.00.

 

[mooman]

If you consider buying one, also consider where you are going to keep it and if you'll really use it again.
I know buying might be close to the cost of renting one, but do you really need to own it after you're done with your project?

 

[jamesemery728]

They are all over CL in this area. Buy, Use, then Sell. The heck with the BIL, friends, etc. This way if you only want to hang one sheet per day you can do it. Or, like others are saying get some quotes on having it hung, taped and finished. There are lots of folks out of work who would probably love a job like this.

 

[Bull]

I kept my eyes peeled on CL for a while, but didn't see anything worth getting. Just a few days ago, a used USA-made Telepro (sp?) lift came up, but it was something like $300 or $400. Sorry, but no.

A couple weeks back, I got a Pentagon Tools Lazy Lifter from Amazon for $149 with free Prime shipping. The package reeked of carcinogenic Chinese chemicals when I opened it, but that's what I expected. The unit does not feel "top quality" but at $149, I couldn't have expected that. My biggest beef is that when you crank the handle to lift the drywall, the movement feels sort of rough in spots, like the cable isn't going through the pulleys smoothly. That being said, it works quite well.

I haven't used this on every sheet, just on the upper sheets on the pitched sections of my ceiling and today I started doing the flat section of ceiling that I have. The flat ceilings are easier to do, but there is a process of finessing everything into place before screwing it down, especially if you have a touch of OCD. The angled ceilings are a bit more difficult because the little hooks that hold the sheet on the lift's arms and keep it from falling off get in the way when you are trying to press it against the ceiling, tight to the previous sheet of rock. For that reason, I have been using wood cleats (?) that I swing into place to capture and hold the bottom edge of the sheet so I can lower the hooks out of the way.

Without this tool, I'd be using all kinds of cleats and even more muscle to get sheets into position, or relying on the help of scarce friends. This thing was well worth the money I spent. It is big, and would be awkward to use in a small room or tight space, like a hallway, but if you have a drywall job ahead, I'd consider picking one up.

Cleats in position, ready to be swung up once the sheet has been placed in the approximate desired position.

Going up.

Pretty much up.

 

[cowboy73]

Glad the drywall lift worked out for ya, Bull! Angled ceilings are always more difficult to deal with. Yeah the cheap lift isn't the greatest but like you said it would have been darn impossible to do all of that by yourself. After you're done, you can rent the lift to friends for a small fee and make your money back.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Looks like the lift is working out for you Bull. I can imagine how much easier it is hanging drywall.


A guy at work has one, I should have borrowed it to hang the OSB on the ceiling of my garage.

 

[signcrafter]

Looks good Bull. I bought one of the cheap lifts off ebay a few years back after struggling to hang some rock myself. It sits around 99% of its life but that 1% when I need it it's well worth the cost. You will use it down the road at some point. Plus it's nice to work at your own pace and not worry about having to get it back to the rental place.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Plus it's nice to work at your own pace and not worry about having to get it back to the rental place.

That is probably the best reason to buy one.

 

[jrsulo]

I bought mine about 9 years ago on e-bay.Was a toss up between hiring a guy for the week or the lift(i was working alone at the time).T bought the lift and have done about 15 basements solo,and other jobs.I have lent it out many times and its paid for itself many times over.Was a good investment !!

 

[CodeRedZ]

I'm kind of tossing the idea around. Harbor Freight has one on sale for 199 and I could go pick it up today and two rental places I called said 25 a day or 27 at the other place. I checked around on craigslist and only one around my area was 195, there was a 130 one but the guy said he sold it to the first guy who called him. So I think I should be able to sell it fairly quick if need be, even if I sell it for 150-175 that would be 1-2 days worth of rental.

 

[teal95]

Bringing it back from the dead (as I think that's better than starting another thread).

Getting ready to hang the ceiling in my shop. 12'4" ceiling height and 4'x12' sheets of 5/8 code X drywall don't make it so I can do it by myself (or with my wife's help). A drywall jack makes it doable but all of them I can find max out at 11'6" or less in height. Am I just looking in the wrong places or are there extensions for them that I'm missing?

steve

 

[ADSR]

Bringing it back from the dead (as I think that's better than starting another thread).

Getting ready to hang the ceiling in my shop. 12'4" ceiling height and 4'x12' sheets of 5/8 code X drywall don't make it so I can do it by myself (or with my wife's help). A drywall jack makes it doable but all of them I can find max out at 11'6" or less in height. Am I just looking in the wrong places or are there extensions for them that I'm missing?

steve

I just cut a piece of 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 square tubing and stuck it in the lift. You just have to lift the sheet a little higher to set it on the machine to begin with.

Mine with the piece of tube does 13 foot.

 

[aslack99]

15 footer

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019WYTQVI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[justme-]

We rent them, I have two in-house made extensions I can use individually or together. Each is about 14 inches. Pipe that fits over the round "peg" of the lift where the head goes with a rod of the correct size welded into the other end to replace the peg.