Lifting stuff into loft alone ...

[Barb]

Hi, I just had a ladder fitted to access my loft, and I have a few things to go up there. Nothing big or heavy.

I live alone - nobody to hand thing up to me - and wonder whether anyone has any suggestions about making a sort of mesh bag with a rope I could use to haul stuff up and down, more easily than trying to push stuff up the ladder with me? As well as being easier, this would be safer.

I've thought of a heavy duty rubble bag with some rope, which would work, but a mesh bag would be better.

Any suggestions gratefully accepted!

Barb.

[Huge]

Scrounge an onion sack from a local greengrocer...

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Barb" saying something like:

Get a small eclectic hoist.

[dom]

You could mount a gin wheel from the roof beams, directly above the hatch, with a rope long enough to hang a bucket one end, and a counterweight the other - plus an extra tail of rope to haul on, hanging past each end.

Set the rope length so that when the counterweight hits the floor below the hatch, the bucket is in just the right place for unloading in the loft - but you can still grab the rope tail on the bucket to haul it back down.

[Andy Dingley]

Gin pulley, light rope and a strong bag. Ikea's blue ones are pretty good. You'll also find a cleat fastened on the wall below to be useful, otherwise learn a good hitch and tie to the banisters.

Electric hoists are really cheap these days (Maplin had one at twenty quid!)

[stuart noble]

For "nothing big or heavy" I just push it up the ladder. By the time you get to shoulder height you can normally lean back on the hatch frame for support and use both hands. Things where there isn't room in the opening for you and the item you could push up with a broom.

[TheScullster]

"stuart noble" wrote

Agreed If you can find a cardboard box of the right dimensions, you can slide it up the ladder stiles ahead of you. Assuming you have a ladder fitted I suspect you would need a similar box if you were using a hoist. The lifted object would snag the ladder steps otherwise (assuming you have a fitted loft ladder that is)

Phil

[RobertL]

Fix a small pulley to the rafters directly above the loft. This makes things much much easier both for lifting thigns up and also for getting them down again.

To answer the question, I just use a rope and tie it round whatever is to be lifted, but I do know how to tie knots properly.

Robert

[Andrew Mawson]

Fix a small pulley to the rafters directly above the loft. This makes things much much easier both for lifting thigns up and also for getting them down again.

To answer the question, I just use a rope and tie it round whatever is to be lifted, but I do know how to tie knots properly.

Robert

Why all these complcated solutions? All you need is a large cupboard in a suitable place. Install "The Medway Handyman" in the cupboard. and call on his services whenever the desire arises

AWEM

[Lee Nowell]

As a simple option since the items are not big or heavy..... why not get something to stand on to enable you to reach to put the items on a board next to the loft hatch. Once you have put them up there, you can go up the ladder yourself and put them wherever you need to in the loft.

[T i m]

T i m

[Phil L]

The biggest problem you will face with all these suggestions is the fact that the ladder will be in the way when you are using the rope, pulley, whatever. Even if you just lash the rope to the bag, climb the ladder, get into the loft with the rope and haul it up that way, the ladder will still be in the way, and it's not 'safer' when you are in the loft and the bag has dislodged the ladder below you and there's no one else in the house.

If you don't feel safe carrying stuff up there in say plastic carrier bags, one at a time, then you may be better getting an extendable clothes line prop, (the sort with a hook at the end) and hooking a bag onto it, extending it up, climbing the ladder and lifting it off at the top.

[Nitro®]

Now you live alone and have shot of your partner do like I did. Cut the body parts into small pieces and put them out a bit at a time for the birds/vermin etc. Any larger parts put into thick sacks with a decent amount of lime. Keep the bag sizes small and you should have no problem hauling the remainder into the attic space. If it's a shared spaced or there is a break in the party wall throw them over their side.

[Dave Liquorice]

That's what I do except that the "something to stand on" are the lower rungs of the loft ladder. Using the ladder means you have variable height, light things can be shoved across more or less at arms length, heavier things you go further up.

A gin wheel with only one person isn't particulary convient, you are always at the wrong end so you have to go fully up and down for each load. With the lift it up and shove it across method you only go up/down as much as you need to.

[Mike Clarke]

Reminds me of Gerard Hoffnung's "Bricklayer's Story".

or for just the text.

[Spamlet]

Experience with large Christmas tree box which is only slightly smaller than the opening, tells me the easiest way is first to take off any 'hand rails' that are bolted in the way on either side of the ladder. Then to lift the box on to the first joint, then get your head under it and walk up sliding it before you as you go. Hoisting stuff up from above means tricky negotiations around the ladder. Just find a suitable sized box and put your stuff in it and slide it up in front of you.

S

[Andrew Gabriel]

What about a second loft hatch, or enlarging the existing one (preferable along, rather than across, the ceiling joists)?

[Spamlet]

Getting OT, but ours are a bit old for mucking about with much: though a certain amount was necessary to fix the ladder in. In our case the hatch is right under a corner angle of the roof too, which makes for some nifty twists to one side as you poke things through.

S S

[Chris J Dixon]

Indeed. My roof truss and landing layout pretty well rules out fitting a loft ladder, but if I did, I'm not sure I could easily get stuff through the hatch.

I have an old pair of steps which can be used in both "A" and straight configuration. For a bulky load, use the steps in "A", work the load up a step at a time, then get beneath it and shove it through the hatch. Then unfold the steps, rest the top end inside the hatch, climb up and move the load to its final resting place.

Bringing stuff down is essentially the reverse process.

Actually, that reminds me to review why I am still keeping some of what is up there ;-)

Chris

[Robin]

FWIW we had that problem (small Victorian terrace with loft hatch on landing near party wall). There was no space in the loft for the ladder to lie flat. Solved it by using a pulley (or gin) on a rafter above one edge of the hatch. A rope through that pulley attached to a sling through the top rung allows it to be pulled up and then (with a pull on the stowing pole hooked into the bottom of the ladder) tilted so the top rungs rest on 2 big hooks screwed into the wall.

Obviously wouldn't work without vertical space in the loft for the ladder plus somewhere to fit the hooks. But it's served us for 20-odd years; and the mechanical advantage of the pulley makes it easier to get the ladder up and down than with just the stowing pole. Indeed, I wonder how wimps like me are meant to cope with just the stowing pole if their loft ladders get as stiff as ours.