Safely using wall jacks to lift walls in high winds in Colorado, solo

[@datazap]

Keep these coming!

[@hu5tle-]

Do you know if you can reverse them? I need to raise a beam and do some work, then lower it, move the jacks them raise it again. Surely there's got to be a way to reverse/lower these if there's an issue.

[@stevenchase1]

no reversing. when you reach the top, you just run them off the top end and reinstall them on the bottom.

[@hu5tle-]

@@stevenchase1 yeah, I know. I needed mine to reverse because I was supporting/lifting a beam with them, but needed to reposition it after some work. Needless to say was a real treat trying to figure that one out.

[@Alex-zp9qm]

No one invented a tiny cheap crane? Or maybe rent one of these fork lifts? If you find yourself saying "this may kill you" - time for Plan B, no? 🤣

[@chadrobinson3504]

It's an interesting question but in the end, lots of things on a job site can kill you if you handle them wrong. Don't forget your physics - a crane that can "lift" an 800lb wall from the ground would have to be quite large and well braced because you'd be talking about a 20-30ft lever. The proper answer to do the same task from that direction is called a "telehandler" and they're used quite often for this. But they also cost $450 per DAY to rent. Compared to $200 to buy a pair of wall-jacks outright, the wall jacks definitely have a lot going for them. Cheap lifting options like chain hosts or winches are out because they need to be attached to something, and that "something" doesn't exist yet - that's what building these walls is doing in the first place. But they're great for other tasks. Stay tuned and in an upcoming episode you'll see me raise the ridge beam using one!