Wasted $200 on a fancy drywall lift that just gathered dust

Bought one of those big panel lifts from a rental place in Denver thinking I'd save time on my basement job. Used it twice and spent more time adjusting the damn thing than just lifting sheets with a buddy. Who else has a tool they bought thinking it'd be a game changer but ended up being a paperweight?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma30617d agoTop Commenter

Drywall lifts are one of those things where you either have a crew to work them right or you don't. Used one for years on commercial jobs and it saves my back every single time. But for a one-man basement job where you're fighting with a rental that's probably beat up and missing parts, I get why you'd hate it. The trick is to have two guys who know how to balance the panels and work the pedal together, then it's fast. On your own with a shaky rental, you're better off just grabbing a sheet with a buddy and using a deadman or a T-bar. The lift is a tool for production work, not weekend projects.

robin_foster116d ago

@uma306 you're basically right about the lift being for production work, but I gotta push back on the two guys thing a little. A good drywall lift actually works better with one person if you know how to stage the sheets right and use the tilt function, more crew just means more people standing around waiting. That shaky rental problem is real though, a beat up lift with a sticky pedal will wreck your whole morning.