Anyone used a Genie lift?

[davidmiller]

I need to install a beam thats got a plate welded to hold the outside skin of bricks so its a bit unevenly balanced.
Any ideas if it'll be easy to push the genie forward once it's at the right height and make slight adjustments to position the beam level and straight.
Also is it easy to pick up in a small van and assemble yourself or is it worth paying for delivery?
The beam is about 180 kgs. Ta

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I presume you mean the type with two forks and a pair of handles (cable operated lifting mechanism), not the CO2 operated type.

If the floor is uneven just put down a sheet or maybe two of 18mm plywood to run the Genie on, or better still a couple of steel plates. They don't move well on soft or uneven floors. You may need to clamp your steelwork onto the forks (big G-clamp, Carver clamp, etc) , but make sure that you have the Genie at the centre of balance. It can take a few bodies, pry bars (and a few Anglo-Saxon incantations) to get big steels into position, but they will lift right up to ceiling level

Genie fork arms are held in place for use with removeable pins, removed for transport. The front feet fold into the body for transport, so you can take them through standard doorways on a site when folded up They will certainly fit in the back of a 1-tonne Transit/Dispatch size van and I imagine many big estate cars. One man can move one about the site (folded up) on his own on the flat - going upstairs or across soft ground will take 2 or 3 bodies

 

[Dave D]

Sounds a bit like the genie is harder to lift than a beam

 

[^woody^]

It's always the floor that issue if anything. It needs to be smooth and flat.

But TBH, 180k's is not that heavy and if it can be carried from the road to the opening, it can just as easily be be lifted up on the trestles and put in later.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

TBH, 180k's is not that heavy and if it can be carried from the road to the opening, it can just as easily be be lifted up on the trestles and put in later.

I now have this vision of you carrying a 180kg steel on one shoulder and holding a cow pie in your free hand!

Being a wimp I've generally borrowed or hired a 2-wheeled dolly to move steels around site unless I was lucky enough to have several strapping young labourers to hand. Fortunately the sort of places I work we either have a telehandler to get stuff to the upper floors, or the S/E has been kind enough to specify a 2-part beam, so a lot less graft (if the PM will forgive that)

 

[RonnyRaygun]

During the construction of my extension I designed a flitch beam. When the steel plate arrived (104kG) two of us carried it into the garden from the road.
I fitted the timber to each side and it was up at 150kG. After two of us managed to lift it up onto trestles at hip height I decided to get a Genie lift to get it into position!

 

[Dave D]

During the construction of my extension I designed a flitch beam. When the steel plate arrived (104kG) two of us carried it into the garden from the road.
I fitted the timber to each side and it was up at 150kG. After two of us managed to lift it up onto trestles at hip height I decided to get a Genie lift to get it into position!
View attachment 278979

Was it handy to wiggle it into position?

 

[RonnyRaygun]

I don't think I moved the Genie once I had it in position - just moved the beam on the forks.

By the way, I don't think supporting the front of the Genie on an old door is necessarily recommended

 

[Dave D]

Also does anyone think a 215 x 450 x100 padstone is a bit big for that beam?

 

[RonnyRaygun]

Also does anyone think a 215 x 450 x100 padstone is a bit big for this beam?

All depends on what it's carrying - what is the load at the support?

 

[^woody^]

I now have this vision of you carrying a 180kg steel on one shoulder and holding a cow pie in your free hand!

You're probably right about the desperate bit.

It's probably a two man carry, but a three man lift, and my words of wisdom for the lifting is - be the man in the middle.