Thread: Any Building Engineers Amongst Us

32mm is not very common, are you sure? More importantly, what size are your floor hoisted,what span? Continuous, or single? What size are your bearers and span?

You could have concrete on those joists, but if they are not up to the job it will fail.

Dave,

these little EWPs are probably ideal for what you want. Is the one you (in Victoria) linked the actual one (in NSW) you are looking at ? If so is there anyone that can have a look at it for you and maybe even do a capacity test on the batteries. Other things to look for are wear in the pivots, signs of regular/no maintenace, worn controls (particularly the motion controls), etc.

Not sure about Victoria, but anything "out of inspection" can usually only be used privately and as Tombie said, they are a bit of a buggar to move around. I still think someone with a red stamp (engineer ) should do some load calculations for your floor at the very least.

good luck.

As everyone says you'll need to do load calcs on the floor, which before you start means everything that been said plus the type of timber and how well seasoned it is. Needs my standards/timber books at work to answer.

What about practical considerations:

Is it pine the wheels will mark the floor, especially if there stones grits in them?

Is this a polished floor the wheels again will damage the polish?

It's a pine floor (grade unknwon)and typically full of knots the load may dislodges the knot?

If it's a tongue & groove floor there is a real possibility that the slender tongue will crack under the high concentrated loads, when re-distributing the wheel load to the adjacent board. This may well mean the floor squeaks every time you walk on it afterwards.

Those EWP's are not meant for bumps: in my experience door sills, etc. edges will stop 'em dead. The ones I've used have out of level trips in them. There meant for shopping centres, etc. with very smooth floors.

Think you'll need, at a min., thick load spreaders, (like what mobile cranes use) on slabs, to save your floor

All pretty negative I know, but can help but think that this may lead to a disappointing result.

Clive

I am not a building engineer, however I do work as a contract administrator for a building company.

Your best option is an aluminium mobile scaffold.

^x2
I hired some of this al. scaffolding recently to do some home maintenance - about 5.5m up - and it was brilliant. Easy to set-up, adjust for different heights, move around (locking wheels) a good size platform (8' x 5') and generally very easy to use.

Cost $133 to hire and I had it for a week, which was a slightly 'discounted' rate as when I returned it I informed them that I had done a bit of maintenance on it for them by lubricating the wheels - took all of a couple of minutes.

Even at the full hire rate, you'd get a lot of usage for the amount you're considering outlaying for the scissor lift, then, as stated, you've got the batteries to maintain.

My parent's home in Brisbane had 14' ceilings. Dad and I painted the inside once using normal painter's trestles and planks with bits of timber and carpet as load spreaders to save the floors. Dad painted the place himself only the once. Every time afterwards he got the professionals in. Too big, too high, too much work, he reckoned.

Buying the scissor lift is not the big expense, trust me.
Wait till hydraulics or electrics go and have to have parts machined up.

Get a good scaffold, buy it and after a year when no longer needed, sell it for almost what you paid.

Small lifts need perfectly flat surfaces or their inbuilt alarm will lock down any lift.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

My parent's home in Brisbane had 14' ceilings. Dad and I painted the inside once using normal painter's trestles and planks with bits of timber and carpet as load spreaders to save the floors. Dad painted the place himself only the once. Every time afterwards he got the professionals in. Too big, too high, too much work, he reckoned.

My walls are about 16 foot then from there a high pitched cathedral ceiling.

Dave.