A shingle hoist is a very handy tool to have when doing a roofing job. It is an often lamented and arduous task carrying heavy bags of shingles up ladders to place them on the roof for installation. It is hard on the shoulders and back. Working on the roof in the hot sun is hard enough – lugging heavy bags up a ladder while trying to be efficient is something that roofers would like to avoid if they could.
Shingle hoists are used to take care of this burdensome and tiring task, so that roofers can focus on the roof work more completely. These are mechanical contrivances that are generally attached to ladders. Let’s look a little closer at shingle hoists and their advantages:
Design and Function
A popular kind of shingle hoist attaches to the base of a ladder and uses a gas motor. The motor transfers power via a belt to a mobile platform that travels up and down the ladder. Shingle bags are loaded on to this platform so that they can be hoisted up to the roof quickly and easy. A worker at the base of the ladder loads the shingle bags on to the platform and then operates a control lever such as a foot switch that lifts the shingles up to the roof level. A worker at the top of the ladder then takes the shingles off for use on the roof construction.
Advantages
The advantages of using a shingle hoist are many. First of all, they save time. Time is money, and the more time a roofing crew can save, the better. Additionally, they save on effort. As noted above, the crew will have more energy for focusing on the roof work if they don’t have to put a lot of energy into the tiring work of getting the shingles up on the roof in the first place. Finally, shingle hoists promote job safety. Falls from ladders are a common accident and they may be made more likely as well as more dangerous if a worker is carrying bags of shingles. Other ladder accessories like ladder hooks and ladder stabilizers can promote safety still further.