I was finishing a ceiling in a Boise spec house when my partner's lift gave out and we had to patch a 4-foot gouge with nothing but a 6-inch knife and some quick-set.

We were 20 feet up and the wheel lock failed, sending the lift into a beam, so I mixed the mud thick, slapped it on in two passes, and sanded it smooth before the homeowner's walk-through that afternoon, but has anyone else had a lift fail at the worst possible moment?

3 comments

3 Comments

luna752mo ago

Checking the wheel lock is part of the big stuff. It's not a little thing to ignore. If a latch snaps in the cold, that means the gear wasn't rated for the conditions or it was already worn out. That's on the person doing the pre-work check, not some sneaky small part. Blaming the equipment after the fact doesn't fix the gouge in the ceiling.

the_thea2mo ago

Man, that's rough. It makes you think about the little things we ignore. Like, we all check the big stuff, the hydraulics, but who really tests every wheel lock before climbing? I had a similar scare once where a cheap plastic latch on an older model just snapped in the cold. It's never the part you're watching.

elliot_johnson1mo ago

Wait, you patched a four foot hole with just a six inch knife? That's some serious patch work right there, I can't even picture how you made that look smooth. I'd be a nervous wreck trying to blend that before a walk-through. How did the quick-set even hold up for sanding that fast?