Car Jack to the Rescue

[sleddriver]

I've been doing some roof repairs lately and found myself in (literally) a tight spot after cutting away some rotted decking to find this:

The load from the horizontal beam was only being supported by 1/2" ply! Oh my! Stupid builder strikes again. I needed to transfer this load to the large beam below as the roof truss does, but it was too tight to wedge a 2x4 in there, much less lift it. I cut a 5/12 wedge to assist, but the hammer-swinging-room was also limited.

Pondering over my options (need more hands for a long lever, too tight for a bottle jack, too little swing room to wedge it), I thought "Wait a minute...my car has a small jack that might work".

Volvo car jack to the rescue! I set it on top of the beam, gave her a couple of cranks and Viola! Enough room to slide the 2x4 into place

Then I slid my 5/12 wedge in place to increase the bearing area, removed the jack and tapped it into place:

Now this load is transfered to the beam where it belongs.
My lucky charm hidden in the trunk! Remember your car jack next time you need a lift in a tight spot.

 

[Rand]

how old was that addition thats retarded.(the builder)

 

[wirelessF]

+1 for improvision.

 

[Shannow]

I've seen them used to re-chock floors, break tyre beads, and even push rocks out of the ground.

You should never have needed to do this (shoddy building) but were forced into improvisation.

 

[GhostFlame]

another use is removing a fence post or mail box post. get a chain with like 1 inch links about 3 feet long. set the jack about 6 inches off the ground, snugly wrap the chain 2 or 3 times around the post, attach lip of jack under the lowest chain point on the post, jack slowly until it engages then jack away. Presto, 4 or 5 pumps .

 

[JHZR2]

nice! We worked on a deck support once by using the car jack!

 

[IndyIan]

I guess you don't get much snow?

Up here that reveals structural "creativity" pretty quick.
That's a handy jack too, what car is it from?

 

[Burt]

I recently used a floor jack to re-level a concrete sidewalk.

 

[bigmike]

We have a large brick mail box with a side planter. It was sagging on one side and wasn't parallel to the road, so I dug a trench around it and used 2 floor jacks to move it, then support the sagging side. It was tough getting the jacks back out of the ground/trench, but it worked.

They come in handy for all kinds of silly things.

 

[Kestas]

I used my engine hoist to save a rather heavy cement sink in the basement. The plumbers, who were replacing my house drain, said it had to be chopped up and removed, and replace it with a cheap platic tub. I brought the engine hoist down in the basement, piece by piece, put it together, lifted the sink, and moved it away. The plumbers took $500 off their quote.

I can't imagine bringing such a heavy sink down into the basement. They must've first put it in the basement, then built the house around it.

 

[rjundi]

It would have been more of a classic to leave the car jack there as the permanent fix. I have seen such things.

 

[sleddriver]

Just the kind of PITA stuff to delay getting this finished. I've fixed numerous problems over the years here. Definitely saved $$$ diy'ing it, but very frustrating to discover shoddy building like this!

Note the carpenter ant damage on the rafter truss to the right. I plan on sistering another 2x4 there to shore it up, patching the ply, then getting back to reroofing this section and being done with it.

Thanks to Volvo...I DID have another jack!

 

[bigmike]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
It would have been more of a classic to leave the car jack there as the permanent fix. I have seen such things.


This is exactly what my grandfather did. On the house he built, the floor started to sag and he couldn't get to it due to the crawl space and his age. He used some piping to jack it up from outside the crawl space and left the jack in place.

 

[eljefino]

When I send a car to the crusher I keep it's jack. Just one of those things. When my sill rotted out the jacks came in handy. Feels pretty good to have one's whole house creaking and moaning with such a dinky tool. I got things lifted up then an interior doorframe fixed itself and the door stopped scraping. Success! Having several jacks let me put temporary ones in different places while sliding the new sill in and while shimming things.

 

[Brons2]

that's nasty!!