Building Your Own Home - A Tool Worth Two Extra People
In building a house it is very common to install some form of sheeting on the ceilings and walls. The sheeting is very often plaster board, but fiber-cement sheets are also used in bathrooms and laundries. In order to keep the joins to a minimum long sheets are used. It is simply impossible for one person to hold up these sheets while screwing or nailing them in position, so help is essential.
Amateur builders usually call in friends to help. At least two people are required to hold up a sheet while the builder fixes it. There are many sheets in the ceilings and for the two helpers it is a long and tiring job to hold them up. They either have to stand on the floor and use some form of prop, or use step ladders. A long sheet can be difficult to hold securely and it is easy to drop it.
The sheet will be ruined, and injuries can easily happen. Even if all goes well, after a while the arms become tired and sheets tend to move out of position. An amateur builder who has friends willing to put up with this discomfort for many hours is very lucky. Fortunately, for those who can't find such willing helpers, there is a fantastic tool which takes their place. It is called a drywall lifter or sheet lifter.
It has a cradle onto which the sheet is placed, which one person can do without difficulty, then the cradle is rotated so that it is horizontal, and by winding a handle the operator raises the sheet to ceiling level. An automatic brake holds it up when the handle is released. It has wheels so it is very easy to move the sheet into exactly the position required, then an extra turn presses it up against the ceiling battens so it cannot move. The builder then fixes it with nails or screws.
If sheets are being fixed horizontally on walls it will hold the upper sheets there as well. Because the lifter doesn't become tired or impatient the builder can put in as many screws or nails as are necessary to hold the sheet very firmly, before removing it to make it easier to insert the final fasteners. When people are holding a sheet it is very tempting to let them move when a few fasteners are in, sometimes with disastrous results. This extremely useful and versatile machine is very reasonably priced.
There are a number of sellers on the internet and the lifters can be found for under $200 plus freight. They have to be assembled after delivery but that is not a difficult job. The cradle is adjustable to suit various sheet sizes, up to the maximum sheet length the machine is designed for. There are different sizes available, and before buying one you should work out the range of sheet lengths you will be using. The smaller models can be used in tight spaces, such as a small bathroom or laundry, and on most models the three feet can be swung inwards to take up less room.
This can be a very useful feature in a really small room where otherwise it might be difficult to place a step ladder. The drywall lifter is a fantastic tool which allows one person to do all the walls and ceilings in a house without help. If used correctly it is safer than using people to hold up sheets and certainly less stressful. When comparing the benefits with the cost, it is probably the best value of any tool used in building a house. When I built my three bedroom house I installed all the ceiling and wall sheets by myself, using a drywall lifter. I built 90% of the house working alone, and the drywall lifter played a big part in that.