Someone has offered me a quantity of stone that is currently in his garden. I have no idea how to go about moving it, and wondered if anyone had done anything similar.
There is a lot of it, mostly in chunks that are too large to move by hand. I'm under no illusions as to how much this stuff weighs. He thinks it used to be a church window. If I can get it back home it'll either become a garden folly again, or walling stone.
I'm going to look at it this afternoon, but my initial impression is that it needs to be got to, and through a gate in the bottom of a garden, and thence onto a vehicle.
Does anyone have any idea what combination of machinery and manpower would be needed to achieve this?
It sounds like "someone" should be paying someone else a fair amount of money to take it away! If you take it away for nothing, "someone" is getting a very good deal ...
As to what equipment to use, all will depend on the weight of the pieces and the nature of the access to the site. If you estimate the volume of the pieces, allow 3 kg for each litre or 3 tonnes for each cubic metre.
I doubt anyone can be specific because you haven't given any dimensions, hence each stone could be anything from a few Kg to a tonne or more. It rather depends on how large the church window was.
Guessing that it's the average stuff, a flatbed truck, a ramp and lots of muscle power would do it. After all the Egyptians moved multi-tonne rocks using ropes, ramps and sandals.
OTOH if you want to be all Hi-Tech about it and you don't have any friends then a bobcat and flatbed truck should do it. If you don't mind it getting damaged then a tipper would help at the other end.
That's how I was doing it here last year - biggest piece was maybe 10" on each side, though. I couldn't get the truck right up to them, but made a little three-wheeled trailer contraption out of some scrap bike parts to get them out from amongst the trees.
(I'm not yet sure how to cut them all in half - plan is to make pillars at the end of the drive, built around a brick core)
If you can roll the lumps over you will be able to move them easily on a bag truck provided the ground is firm and reasonably level. I shifted a sandstone slab 45" by 21" by 4"up a slight slope (with some difficulty) only last week. Stones that heavy can't realistically be transported by car but almost any pick-up would do if the stone could be loaded. Tripod and engine hoist might do or even a simple A frame if they are too heavy for 2 or more people to lift.
What's "stone"? Weights per lump, total weight, size per lump, and is it dressed? How rough can you be to it, or would surface damage be a problem?
How did it get there? To paraphrase the immortal words of Haynes, "Collection is the reverse of Delivery"
Small stone can be lifted from beneath, and planing a wedged-end onto a pickaxe shaft can make you a strong lever that's not likely to scrape it up too much. Otherwise slip hosepipe over a crowbar. You hump it piece by piece onto a barrow, and away you go.
Big pieces, or pieces with nice corners, might need lifting from above. This needs a "Lewis", usually either a dovetailed "St Peter's keys" that fit into a hole, or else an external pair of tongs. A hydraulic engine crane will work these nicely on a good surface, but in the garden you'll be wanting a tractor or JCB with a front bucket. Engine cranes are _NOT_ for moving heavy weights around. Crane the load onto a low trolley, then move the trolley while it's nice and stable.
Trolleys are to be had easily with the aid of a good condition pallet and four 6" castors screwed to it. Always fit bigger wheels than you think you'll need, you'll be glad when you hit an uneven surface.
One of the easiest ways to move stone is with an inverted wheelbarrow
- a ladder-like frame _above_ the stone, with the stone in a Lewis. Roll your own, as appropriate. This can move a lot of stones quite easily, provided you don't break your toes with it.
Thanks for all the advice and hints. I've decided to go with slaves.
Alternatively, as I'm going to use the stone for walling, I'll go with a neighbour and a jack hammer, and split the stuff that's too big for two of us to lift into my trailer (it's some kind of sandstone). Having visited the site, I can reverse a 6x4 trailer up to the heap. The limiting factor will be the number of trips I'll have to make, and the odd large bit with ornamental features, that I'll not want to damage. I've been offered the loan of a pallet truck, so I might just hire something with a tail-lift, that will get as far as he back lane, and overload it a few times.
wheel barrow. You can wheel about 200kg or so reasonably easily.
You can lift about 35-50kg with an effort. Two people can do about 50-80kg.
A small digger can do a bit more..I wouldn't want to do much more than
100kg on a minidigger tho. I nearly toppled a 3.5 tonne digger with a full bucket of broken up foundations..
You should probably not put more than 500kg in a car at one time though. I've had about 800kg in a Defender, and it was distinctly unstable much over 70mph.
Some builders working near me are using a nifty little tracked machine, with a bucket on the front that goes up and down like a fork-lift, but also tilts/pours. The operator stands on a perch at the back. It might even be an adapted fork-lift, I suppose.
In principle that's a clever idea. In practice, the problem would be that a skip planted in that back lane would block it off to residents further down the lane.
That will be the towing limit for the vehicle. I suspect the safe load for a small trailer would be much lower. If it is a professionally made unit it probably has a plate somewhere giving the maximum load.
A quick google suggests that there is at least one manufacturer who makes similar sized trailers which have maximum loads of 500kg and
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.