Moving a sarcophagus
Discussion
Guys,
Unusual one here. And I hope I have it in the right forum.
At our church we have a sarcophagus. It looks like this:

About 6.5ft long, a couple of feet wide and (by my maths) about 1.1tons of stone. And it's in the wrong place. It's been where it is for the last 60+ years but we need to move it about 30metres across an uneven stone floor and up a small step of about 10cm.
How do we do it?
We can gain (reasonable) access to both sides of the thing and it's on blocks so we can get straps (or blue ropes) underneath it. A team of 10 blokes all lifting as hard as they could just about moved it off the ground for a second or so but no more, so we're beyond the realms of human strength. We need lifting equipment of some kind.
It's inside, so big cranes are out.
What suggestions do people have? Whatever we use would need to be able to traverse an uneven floor, so it needs to be either a lifting trolley on large wheels or something that lifts it and runs the thing on rails. It needs to be wieldy enough to get through doors (the sarcophagus isn't going through a door, but the lifting equipment needs to be brought into the church and moved out.) Headroom is no problem, but never was going to be.
All (sensible) suggestions welcome. Thanks!
Unusual one here. And I hope I have it in the right forum.
At our church we have a sarcophagus. It looks like this:
About 6.5ft long, a couple of feet wide and (by my maths) about 1.1tons of stone. And it's in the wrong place. It's been where it is for the last 60+ years but we need to move it about 30metres across an uneven stone floor and up a small step of about 10cm.
How do we do it?
We can gain (reasonable) access to both sides of the thing and it's on blocks so we can get straps (or blue ropes) underneath it. A team of 10 blokes all lifting as hard as they could just about moved it off the ground for a second or so but no more, so we're beyond the realms of human strength. We need lifting equipment of some kind.
It's inside, so big cranes are out.
What suggestions do people have? Whatever we use would need to be able to traverse an uneven floor, so it needs to be either a lifting trolley on large wheels or something that lifts it and runs the thing on rails. It needs to be wieldy enough to get through doors (the sarcophagus isn't going through a door, but the lifting equipment needs to be brought into the church and moved out.) Headroom is no problem, but never was going to be.
All (sensible) suggestions welcome. Thanks!
Spider crane will probably do what you want.
Or a small pick and carry crane. Also here.
Or a small pick and carry crane. Also here.
Edited by hidetheelephants on Friday 17th January 01:20
Shuff4 said:
Rollers and straps / strops for a slight lift / pull, would be my go to.
Isn’t this the obvious way? Half a dozen or so round fence posts as rollers, maybe a couple of shorter ones to get through the door, and a couple of straps for a bit of a lift when it gets to the step.
If you had access to few timber offcuts and a sheet of OSB then a ramp would be easily sorted and make it even easier?
The core issue is the uneven ground. This will make the small wheels or rollers of most solutions far less workable.
You'd want to use a number of heavy duty inflatable rollers as used to move boats over cobbles etc.
The correct solution however is to phone up the Church of England and tell them to pull out their wallet and pay some professionals.
You'd want to use a number of heavy duty inflatable rollers as used to move boats over cobbles etc.
The correct solution however is to phone up the Church of England and tell them to pull out their wallet and pay some professionals.
55palfers said:
The C of E has a net worth of almost £9 billion.
Asking a handful of untrained and uninsured blokes to perform a challenging manual handling task on a priceless relic is not really on.
Get the professionals in and ask for a discount.
Hush you with your sensible suggestions!! Asking a handful of untrained and uninsured blokes to perform a challenging manual handling task on a priceless relic is not really on.
Get the professionals in and ask for a discount.

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