Lifting roof trusses
A home made lifting device is used to place roof trusses on a shed.
I have a little shack in the Wombat
Ranges in Victoria and have always wanted
to build a shed on the property. I decided
that a barn type construction would
best suit the surroundings and set about
designing a building that consisted of two
skillion roofed sections approximately five
metres by four metres facing each other
with a four metre gap in between the two
buildings. Four 45 degree roof trusses were
constructed to bridge the gap. The height
at the front of the two outer buildings was
approximately four metres.
The big problem I faced was how to
erect the trusses between the two outer
buildings, bearing in mind that I wanted
to clad the external face of the two outside
trusses. The height would be in the order
of six and a half metres to the peak of the
roof. After revisiting some of The Owner
Builder articles I came up with the idea
of constructing a lifting device to lift the
trusses into position from the ground.
BY BARRY DEGENHARDT
beams protruded above the ends of the
skillion roof sheets. Next I installed some
water pipe from the end of the beams
vertically down to the ground where I
poured blocks of concrete around the base
of the pipes. The purpose of the pipes was
not only to be used as my lifting device
but also to anchor the building down so
that it did not blow away in high winds.
In my workshop I constructed two
triangular lifting frames approximately
two metres long by 0.8 metres in height
to mount onto the vertical water pipes at
the end of the building. The frames were
fitted with rollers and made to run freely
up and down the pipe. Now that I had
my lifting frames in position, I installed
pulleys at both ends of the two horizontal
support beams.
Cables and winches
The device
First I bolted timber support beams
250mm x 50mm x 6 metres in length
along the inner facing fronts of the
skillion buildings to provide mounting for
the roof trusses and to act as rails to slide
the trusses into position, ensuring that the
I installed 6mm steel cables to each of
the lifting frames on either side and ran
the cables up over the pulleys at the top,
then along the support beam to the pulleys
at opposite ends. From here I ran the cables
down to the ground where I installed two
boat trailer winches one on either side.
pulley
pulley
truss
support beam along skillion edge
6mm cable
6mm cable
bracing
pipe (concreted at base)
pipe
temporary
spreader
rollers (not shown) on lifting
frame to enable it to run up pipe
lifting frame
48
THE OWNER BUILDER o 173 October – November 2012
winch
I placed the two trusses upright on the
triangular frames at ground level, clad
the face of one of the trusses then joined
and braced the two trusses together at
a spacing of approximately 1700mm.
After this, I bolted some short angle iron
pieces at the ends of the trusses to act
as a means of bolting them down to
the support beams. I further attached
temporary spreaders between the trusses
out at the end. I mounted the temporary
spreader under the trusses to act as a
guide rail between the two beams. I
estimated that the total weight of the two
trusses and the cladding to be in the order
of 100 kilograms.
It works
With my good mate on one winch
and myself on the other we started the
lift. The trusses ascended without a
problem. Once at the top I pinned the lift
in position, disconnected each cable from
the lifting frame and attached it to the
truss. Back on the winches we continued
to pull the trusses along the building to
their final position.
The procedure was repeated with the
other two trusses. I could not have been
happier with the result. All I had to do now
was to secure the trusses to the beams,
attach the roof battens and the roof sheets.
I spent approximately six hours in my
workshop and about the same amount
of time on site to set up the lifting device.
The cost was minimal as I made most of
my lifting device from scrap. As for the
boat winches, I had one kicking around
in the shed and I borrowed the other
from my mate. The time it took to lift the
trusses and move them into position was
approximately 40 minutes in total.
The big advantage with the
construction was that I was able
assemble the trusses and clad the ends
at ground level thus ensuring that the
trusses were square and straight. N
© www.theownerbuilder.com.au • 0402 428 123
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2
3
4
5
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1. Triangular lifting device in place on pipe.
2. Nearly complete – roofing sheet goes on.
3. Rollers enable the frame to run freely up
and down the pipe.
4. Trusses ready to be placed on lifting frame.
5. First pair of trusses start their way up...
6. ...reach full height...
7. ...and then slide along into position.
8. Second pair of trusses follow...
6
© www.theownerbuilder.com.au • 0402 428 123
9. ...to complete the central roof framework.
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THE OWNER BUILDER o 173 October – November 2012
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