That job in Kamloops where a chalk line saved my back

I was on a deck build outside Kamloops last summer, hauling 16-foot joists up a ladder by myself. Foreman just watched and said nothing until I dropped one and nearly fell. He walked over, snapped a chalk line from the ground to the deck edge, and showed me how to use a rope and pulley trick to lift them. Total game changer for solo work. Anyone else ever get a lesson like that from an old timer?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_knight11d ago

My uncle taught me the SAME trick on a barn roof near Merritt back in 2018. He tied a loop in the rope, hooked it over a joist, then ran it through a pulley he'd bolted to the ridge board. I was hauling 2x10s up a ladder one at a time like a dummy before that. A little chalk line and a cheap pulley and suddenly I'm lifting entire bundles without breaking a sweat.

tyler_hall921h ago

Hauling 2x10s up a ladder one at a time... I mean, that sounds like my whole life before I saw the light with a pulley. I'm pretty sure I still have a permanent trapezius knot from doing that exact dumb thing.