Larger pieces are sometimes impossible to carry up stairs or through doorways such as was the case with this huge, oversized sofa. Therefore they require the use of block and tackle or strong strapping to manually hoist them up into the residence through an outside opening such as sliding doors or a large window. Manual hoisting is limited to 3 floors here a crane was needed to hoist this huge sofa up 4 stories onto the balcony. Then it could be carried inside thru the balcony's sliding glass doors.

Notice how well this sofa is protected as the hoist begins. Here we are using furniture pads, shrink wrap and strong nylon belts attached to the crane's hook . Having the piece properly prepared like this beforehand avoids scuffing damages during the hoist and while it is being handled upstairs. This kind of careful, heavy padding also prevents the belts attached to the crane from rubbing against or damaging the surface of the sofa. Such heavy padding is necessary to protect the sofa from tearing or being scuffed as it's being lifted or when it's going through openings (doorways or windows).

In this picture the sofa has now been raised up to the fourth floor by the crane. The hoist was particularly difficult for the crane operator due to the fact that he had to avoid several bundles of unseen telephone wires located just above the balcony where the top of the crane arm had to be positioned. This is one of the reasons why crane hoists MUST BE performed by a licensed professional crane operator, not by furniture movers. Once the crane operator got by these problems the piece was then swung over to the balcony where the furniture movers took over and pulled the piece onto the balcony. Notice the man on the right signaling the crane operator with his arm. This coordination between the movers and the crane operator is crucial to the success of a crane hoist.

Notice how this very large couch almost fills the entire balcony! Had it not fit onto the balcony with enough room to swing through the door the whole hoisting effort would have been wasted. This hoist was successful because the estimator is highly experienced, and although the measurements for the job showed a very tight squeeze, he knew that the sofa would just make it. So he joined the crew on this job just to be sure that everything went just as he envisioned it occurring.

In this picture the sofa has safely arrived and has been detached from the crane and the movers are now maneuvering the sofa through the tight sliding door opening. Because this sofa was properly padded before the hoist began, it was ready to go through without damage to it or the door, even though it was a very tight fit.