Moving a stone slab up stairs

[Kayos]

There was a similar stone table in several of the houses I lived in when at Bradford Uni.

We assumed they were sacrifical alters. I assume in these enlightened times you can appease the gods outside?

Not quite sacrificial alters but definitely used to chop up meat, usually in houses pre 1850. Around 1860 houses started having covenants to stop people having blood boilers in the cellar so the meat prep was moved out of the cellar

 

[mangocrazy]

In which case I would suggest that a couple of reasonably fit blokes
would simply lift and carry it to where you want it.

That would be the easiest and simplest option, but the last thing I want is anyone getting hurt or injured. I was thinking of fabricating a larger, stronger version of a plasterboard carrier (see below) to make carrying the slab a bit easier on the hands and arms.

 

[GRW]

Im another that would just heft up up the stairs.
No planks etc cos then you can just lift one step at a time, resting the slab on a step and just balancing it, one step at a time to prevent fatigue, slips, drops

Once on the first step, you could even use a scissor jack or bottle jack off the lower step, to help raise the slab to the next lift

 

[Gritineye]

Im another that would just heft up up the stairs.
No planks etc cos then you can just lift one step at a time, resting the slab on a step and just balancing it, one step at a time to prevent fatigue, slips, drops

Me too!

 

[8ob]

A decent "Donk" would put that slab under his arm and run up those stairs with it.

Bob

 

[GRW]

Oh yeah.... get one of those webbing lifting slings with a loop on each end.

You can get 1-metre & 2-metre ones.

Slip the sling under the slab when it's on-end... this gives each lifter either side a solid "handle' at a comfortable height to lift with - it'd make manhandling thr slab up the steps way easier

 

[Other Daniel]

This is another subject which is falling victim to overthinking.

 

[mangocrazy]

Oh yeah.... get one of those webbing lifting slings with a loop on each end.

You can get 1-metre & 2-metre ones.

Slip the sling under the slab when it's on-end... this gives each lifter either side a solid "handle' at a comfortable height to lift with - it'd make manhandling thr slab up the steps way easier

I like that idea, but there will be scarcely enough room for one burly bloke and the slab in the stairway - it's only about 650mm wide (just over 2 feet in old money).

 

[GRW]

I like that idea, but there will be scarcely enough room for one burly bloke and the slab in the stairway - it's only about 650mm wide (just over 2 feet in old money).

You might have to get longer slings and have one guy heaving from above, and the other lifting from below.... but the basic method should still work.... as long as both blokes stick with it

 

[GRW]

Or sink a couple of lifting eyes into the walls of the stairwell... and use ratchet straps and ingenuity as well as heft to shift it a step at a time

 

[Other Daniel]

Well, yeah, why do it simply, when we have the opportunity to make
it as complex and drawn out as possible ?

 

[mangocrazy]

If I can find a couple of blokes who are happy to lift it up the stairs and out into the garden, that is my preferred option. If they don't have a problem taking it on, I'm happy for them to do it. I presume 125kg weight between two blokes is manageable?

 

[Maker]

Not quite sacrificial alters but definitely used to chop up meat, usually in houses pre 1850. Around 1860 houses started having covenants to stop people having blood boilers in the cellar so the meat prep was moved out of the cellar

Always wondered what it was, we had one exactly as Mango describes at the last house I rented in Sheffield. What's this about blood boilers? My friend said she had a safe in her basement, I had a look and it was clearly some kind of old wood burner.

As for moving the slab, I'd stand it on it's end, walk it to the stairs and lump it up one step at a time by myself, two people would just get in each other's way I think. Only problem is if you slip it'll crush you, so make sure H&S isn't watching.

 

[Kayos]

Always wondered what it was, we had one exactly as Mango describes at the last house I rented in Sheffield. What's this about blood boilers? My friend said she had a safe in her basement, I had a look and it was clearly some kind of old wood burner.

As for moving the slab, I'd stand it on it's end, walk it to the stairs and lump it up one step at a time by myself, two people would just get in each other's way I think. Only problem is if you slip it'll crush you, so make sure H&S isn't watching.

I meant bone boiler, not blood

 

[James1979]

weighs less than a dead body so yeah no worries

 

[Maker]

weighs less than a dead body so yeah no worries

You're always gonna have problems lifting a body in one piece. Apparently the best thing to do is cut the corpse into six pieces. Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs...

 

[sg66]

I would just get a mate round and pick it up first, give you a proper idea of what your dealing with, problem with stairs is poor bugger at bottom is getting most the weight.

Would a stair climber navigate the stairs or is it too narrow?

 

[James1979]

A decent "Donk" would put that slab under his arm and run up those stairs with it.

Bob

I find the best donk fuel is “bet you can’t move x to y!”

 

[8ob]

I find the best donk fuel is “bet you can’t move x to y!”

Followed by "you pussy" job done

Bob

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Always wondered what it was, we had one exactly as Mango describes at the last house I rented in Sheffield. What's this about blood boilers? My friend said she had a safe in her basement, I had a look and it was clearly some kind of old wood burner.

As for moving the slab, I'd stand it on it's end, walk it to the stairs and lump it up one step at a time by myself, two people would just get in each other's way I think. Only problem is if you slip it'll crush you, so make sure H&S isn't watching.

Quite interesting.

A bloody offal nuisance: the persistence of private slaughter-houses in nineteenth-century London on JSTOR

IAN MACLACHLAN, A bloody offal nuisance: the persistence of private slaughter-houses in nineteenth-century London, Urban History, Vol. 34, No. 2 (August 2007), pp. 227-254

www.jstor.org