DIY Sheetrock Hoist for about $100

When I was building the house I had decided to hang all the sheetrock myself and sub-out the taping and texture because that would be just too big of a job to take on by myself.

The house has ten foot ceilings and the time before I had rented a sheet rock hoist it wasn't until I got home and realized it was meant for eight foot ceilings and I had to make piles of pallets with a sheet of plywood on top to reach the front garage ceiling and I tend to drag projects out forever so I try and avoid renting things if I can buy it or make it for the estimated cost of a rental. I've always loved to weld things since I was a teenager so I made a trip to the local salvage yard and got some scrap pipe and tube steel which ended up being about $40 since you pay by the pound. I then went and bought a cable hoist like would be on a boat trailer to put the thing in and out at the dock and 4 heavy casters and pulley with a bracket included for about $50.

Step 1 The Lifting Jack

The basic working component is a two inch pipe about five feet long and a piece of square tube steel, thick walled and I think is about an inch and a half across that fit loosely inside the two inch pipe but not so loose it would just float free since you want it to stay inline as you extend it. By dumb luck the pulley I chose had a bracket spaced wide enough for the square tube to fit through but snug enough to keep the tube aligned so it couldn't spin and get the cable wrapped up and it held the pulley pretty close but not touching the tube.

I never question dumb luck!

Comments

[charlessenf-gm]

Nice job. House sounds great, too. I glued OSB (7/1") on the walls of my barn and intend to repeat on the interior surfaces of the walls as well (good nailing surface or a shop) and structurally - its becoming like a rock. They sell teflon tape in 2" widths that is thicker than used for threading pipe fittings nd could be glued on the surface holding teh sheets so as to avoid rough welds and even some movement of the sheet once "up." I use it on some woodworking jigs that have to slide along the table saw top and such. Good job ad good instructions//pictures.

[Esmagamus]

Well, my house is like a rock! And made of stone too! The walls are about 70 cm (over 3 ft.) thick and stand for over a century. Taking into consideration the contractor's bad skills when we added a living room, I trust the old part better than the one he built. As for building with wood, do it like you were building a ship. As strong as that.

[Senseless]

I did. Every wall inside and out has plywood glued and nailed underneith the sheetrock so it is similar to a bunch of shipping containers joined to form rooms. The building inspector told me it would take 150 mph winds on the main floor... I'm 30 miles from the gulf and hate to evacuate plus have a below grade level that is big enough to house my entire street plus kennels for all the dogs and cats built under my workbench. Plan ahead!

[leebryuk]

I always wondered how this was done. I'm impressed. I need to take a welding class soon. Excellent Job.

[Senseless]

I bought my welder when I was 20 for $2500 in 1981? and was welding quarter panels on cars a week later. It paid for itself in 6 months. They were fairly new on the market then hence the high cost and even a small gassless one at $300 will do an amazing amount of work. I never had a welding class. I watch someone that knows how to do things and learn, it's a lucky knack that I have but usually one time is all I need to get the basic idea and I practiced on scrap metal and never set a car on fire! PS: Always be carefull welding vertical tubes, they are painted or undercoated and the flames turn it into a chimney powered engine. I have though caught myself on fire many times LOL.

[Esmagamus]

Maybe not. If you are considering MIG welding, that should be pretty easy. I've learned SMAW (shielded metal arc-welding) by myself, just with the help of some books and guitar playing (you'll understand this part when you start welding). Hell, I once asked a blacksmith to weld a stainless steel pipe to a beer keg and he melted two holes in the metal in three seconds! I decided to take it home and weld it myself. You know what? I didn't need more than a dozen welds worth of experience to weld better than that... pro!

[leebryuk]

I've had friends who have done that. My stuff would be structural repairs and modifications on high stress areas of cars. There's nothing fun about a sub-standard weld on a car coming loose at a critical moment. On a side note, I've been watching the developments on structural expoxy for cars. It's good for large surface area bonds. Pretty neat stuff. Thanks for the encouragement

[Esmagamus]

There is nothing funny about welds failing, but there should be nothing stopping you from learning how to make welds of lesser importance before taking those classes. A person that tries to learn by itself is better prepared to evaluate problems when they come up, so I advise everyone to try to learn things alone. Besides, it's always good to have a proper knowledge base before taking any classes. Sometimes, the people that are supposed to teach know less than their students.

[Senseless]

I bought my mig before I ever used one and taught myself. There is a lot of motor skills involved with welding that you can't learn by reading...

[Esmagamus]

Certainly there are a lot of motor skills to be mastered and that can't be learned by reading, but I was lucky to have found some manuals before I learned how to weld that gave me an insight on what skills I had to learn and even before I got that old SMAW welder in working order, I had already trained those skills. And remember that stick welding is the most demanding process on motor skills, especially when inverter machines ar not used.

[wildwaters]

Sheetrocking is fun o new construction :) I did it for awhile and used a lift sometimes. what was teh costing on this if I may inquire? You can get a lift for what 600 bucks? Btw rock on brother :) Sheetrocking is a thrill sport lol. -anthony

[Senseless]

Right around a hundred dollars since I was able to buy scrap steel by the pound, Buying stock steel likely would make it around $250

[wildwaters]

Oh, why'd yah put that strip on the wall at the top? Wasn't it wide enough to put in the center and double flat it?

[Senseless]

It cost about a hundred dollars in parts to build and I got asked a lot why I didn't run the 2 foot section in the middle and not knowing better I figured taping the factory edges would show less than taping along a cut. It's easier to finish in the middle as far as mudding is concerned so I figure that's why most finishers like it hung that way but I'm no pro so I dunno...

[wildwaters]

>.< Hehe professional drywalling can be a monster :) we would put the joints the middle because with the new tools you can easily make it look smooth with a butt - seam joint. just means a wider joint. 100 dollars would be quite a deal for a lift. Nice job :)

[magickaldan]

Looks great, I might have to build one for the house I'm building. 2 story 3 bedroom 1 bath.

[GorillazMiko]

very very awesome instructable! super cool! pretty pricey, but its worth it!

[Senseless]

Darkmuskrat. If you just need to repair a small area that got water damage, you can patch it pretty simply by cutting out the bad area after drawing a simple rectangle around the damaged area so you know the dimensions for the patch. Instead of cutting entirely through the damaged sheet rock, cut deep enough to pierce the plaster but not far enough to go all the way through the paper backing. Chip away the plaster and you'll have a nice rectangular hole with a paper flap on all sides. When you cut the patch make your rectangle about 4 inches longer on each side than the hole, flip it over and cut the exact size or a tad smaller than the ceiling hole and pick out the plaster again so now you have your patch with 2 inches of the finished side as a paper flap. Try it for size before you plaster and if it is a good fit first apply some mud to the ceiling flaps and around the edge of the hole, put in the patch if you have any place to get a screw in do so then plaster the edges of the patch to the ceiling and then apply some of that sheetrock tape that looks like screen and then put a finish coat over the hole thing. If you didn't have a good spot to get a screw in find away to prop it up and let the seams dry well before doing the finish coat. This works well with patches a foot around or less. If you have to cut out an irregular shaped area of ceiling, do the same thing but after its cut thumbtack a large sheet of paper over the hole and do and etching like people do to gravestones. I hope this makes sense, I crushed the left side of my head in an accident a while back and it effects my speech a bit.

[darkmuskrat]

Im happy for this instructable...But sad I might be doing this because of a leak in the ceiling :(

[shooby]

Great instructable, thanks.

[theRIAA]

pretty impressive... sheetrocking doesn't sound very fun...