Best Drywall Plate Lifts
If you are in the process of remodeling or renovating your home, you may have had to deal with a slab lift many times.
This is a professional aid that promotes a clean and safe work environment and can help save a significant amount of time.
Since drywall is not easy to work with, you will need some type of equipment to support the panels and raise them high enough to use during construction.
Best Professional Drywall Lift
Perfect Pick

Features:
- Sturdy welded steel construction
- Coating: powder coat paint
- 4″ roller wheels for easy movement
- Foot stops to hold the elevator in place for safety
- Easy assembly and disassembly of the Drywall Lift
- A strong support hook ensures product safety
- Maximum load of 150 lbs.
- Adjusting the arm length with the telescoping button
- Built-in single-stage winch with brake mechanism
- Universal wheel with brake fixed
How to Hang 20FT Long Drywall Ceiling with Drywall Panel Lifter - Video
How To Choose Drywall Lift?
Buyer’s guide for drywall lifts
This review and guide provide information on some of the best drywall lifts you can find.
There are quite a few manufacturers of tile lifts on the building materials market today, and prices vary significantly depending on the model and design. On a pure price basis, tile lifts differ with models available for as little as just under $100 each. At the other end of the scale, however, there are tile lifts that can cost the interested craftsman nearly $400.
Drywall panel lifter
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All our reviews are based exclusively on expert judgments or practical experience in using most of the drywall lifts we have tested. We strive to make our manual independent and as detailed as possible.
Drywall Panel Hoists Reviews
VEVOR Drywall Rolling Lifter Panel
Heavy-duty drywall lift
This drywall lift is made of heavy-duty carbon steel, ensuring its longevity and durability. With a maximum load of 150 pounds, this drywall rolling lifter panel is ideal for home and commercial use.
The telescopic arm can be adjusted from 4 to 9.5 ft, perfect for installing sheets. And the sheetrock lift drywall lift can reach a height of 16 ft that can help you attach to the ceiling.
Features:
- 150 lbs Load Capacity.
- Adjustable Height & Length.
- 60° Tiltable Rotation Panel.
- Secure & Good Balance.
- Easy Assemble & Operation.
PANELLIFT Drywall Lifter
Best Drywall Lifter for money
The Telpro Panellift drywall lifter can be assembled or disassembled in seconds with no tools required. A tilting cradle brings the loading height down to a manageable 34 inches for easy installation of drywall to walls and to sloped or level ceilings up to 11-Feet tall. A maximum load rating of 150 pounds ensures plenty of support for lifting all standard drywall sheets. The integral cradle outriggers extend to handle up to 4-by-16-foot sheets.
Features:
- Max load 150 lbs.
- Max reach 11′ 5″, 15′ with 186 extension.
- Sheet Size & Capacity: single drywall sheets up to 4′ x 16′.
- Standard Loading Height: 37″.
- Loading Height with optional Loader 195: 2-4″.
FastCap 3rd Hand Support System
Cheap drywall lift
Starting at 5 feet and reaching to 12 feet, the 3rd Hand provides support, brace, or clamp. Great for installing upper cabinets, crown molding, and window coverings. 3rd Hand supports drywall, plastic barriers, ceiling panels, and light fixtures.
Features:
- Material: Steel & ABS.
- Load Capacity: 150 lbs per pole.
- Extension Range: 57 into 12 ft (144 in).
- Outer Pole Diameter: 1 3/16 in.
Troy Drywall Lift 15-Foot Panel Hoist Dry Wall
Drywall sheets can weigh up to 105lbs, making installation a two-man (or even three-man) job. With a Troy drywall lift, you can install full sheets of drywall in a fraction of the time, and you can do it with no help. The Troy drywall lift is easy to set up, simple to operate, and built from commercial-grade steel.
It is rugged enough to be used on a professional job site and easy enough for a do-it-yourself job in your own home. A backstop with rubberized feet prevents any movement of the drywall lift while drywall is loaded and in position for hanging on a wall.
Features:
- No tools are required to assemble.
- Max reach for horizontal ceilings: 11 feet.
- Max single sheet capacity: up to 4-foot by 16-foot.
- Max load rating: 150-pound capacity.
What to look for when buying a drywall lifter
Drywall Plate Lifter
Plate lifters are an extremely useful and sensible purchase, they are robust and compact, and virtually maintenance-free in harsh environments. Powerful and stable plate lifts were equipped with extended handles by the respective manufacturer, an upright working position that is easy on the back is also possible and increases the working time with the plate lift.
How do you use a drywall lift by yourself?
Today, powerful and stable panel lifters are not only suitable for rigging panels or for panels, as they are used, for example, in drywall construction or interior finishing. Likewise, stable models of the plate lifter can be used and applied for sidewalk or terrace plates.
If these tools are also equipped with extra-long handles by the respective manufacturer, an upright and thus back-friendly working posture is possible, which also makes longer operations with such a plate lifter possible without any problems.
The classic and traditional field of application for the plate lifter still extends to the installation aid for drywall and for the interior finishing of residential and commercial buildings.
However, the plate lifter can also be successfully used for paving work outdoors, for transport, and for laying paving slabs. An attached blade on the plate lifter is additional equipment and convenience feature. This is namely used for the so-called pulling of slabs to be laid or even panels.
Drywall panel lift
A slab lifter is a mechanical device used for lifting and moving natural stone slabs or concrete slabs. This is done by hand. The slab lifter consists of a supporting rail with a handle. To the right and left of the handles, the rail is equipped with clamping jaws that can be moved. With the help of these, stone slabs can be clamped, lifted, and transported. Of course, there are also some without clamping jaws. These have a suction cup instead, with the help of which a vacuum is created so that the handle adheres to the slabs. This is also called a vacuum lifter or suction lifter. When laying stone slabs, a slab lifter enables the safety of lifting the slabs and thus reduces injuries to hands and fingers.
Drywall Hoist Glossary
- Chipboard
The thin board is made of pressed and chopped wood. Serves as a base or as a component of inexpensive furniture.
- Load capacity
The maximum load capacity of weight on objects.
- Ergonomics
Ergonomics also comes from Greek and describes all the processes of the balanced body. Today, ergonomic products are sold, which pay special attention to good posture and statics of the body.
- Galvanized
Metals that are coated with a zinc powder to gain additional stability.
- Soft grip
Handles that are covered with additional padding are made of fabric or rubber to make them more comfortable to use.
Hoist for drywall: the principle of operation, the main nodes and mechanisms
In fact, the lifting mechanism for plasterboard can be called a kind of jack, capable of lifting plasterboard to a great height – these modern devices allow you to mount ceilings at a great height alone.
If we deal in detail with the design of such elevators, this mechanism can be divided into four main parts.
- Roller base – as a rule, it is a tripod with wheels, which allows you to move the empty and loaded plasterboard device at any distance and in any direction. This doesn’t mean that a drywall installation hoist can be used as a carrier for large loads – it’s designed to handle up to 100 feet and not a gram more. So if you do not want to break your new helper, use it as intended and do not transport more than one sheet of drywall.
- The telescopic tripod. This is what makes it possible to lift drywall to a height. In most cases, the tripod has two elbows made in the form of tubes.
- Lifting winch – in almost all cases, manual. By turning the crank of the lifting winch, you can easily extend and retract the upper knee of the telescope.
- Cargo platform. Typically, is a hollow tubular frame, made in the shape of the letter “H”, which supports a sheet of plasterboard throughout the plane. Some elevator models are equipped with a sliding load platform, which allows you to use it to lift both whole sheets of drywall and sections of it. The most interesting thing is that such a platform almost always has a tilt function. This is done for convenience and to expand the capabilities of the mechanism.
The tilt of the platform allows you to lift the drywall from a standing position at the end. This makes the work easier because a person practically does not have to strain even to fix the plasterboard on the platform. In addition, such a tilt-and-turn design of the platform allows using the lifting mechanism to cover not only ceilings but also walls at a great height.
In addition to the above-described basic parts, without which the spacer elevator for plasterboard will not be able to function properly, they are equipped with additional devices.
They can include the following:
- A platform for work. As a rule, it is mounted on a roller tripod – it allows you to eliminate the use of a stepladder or trestle.
- An electric drive. Such an elevator – the dream of every plasterboard. It is controlled by remote control. The operator of the device needs only to move the elevator to the desired location and fix the plasterboard on the site – the rest of the work is done by electric motors.
As you can see, the device for lifting drywall is not particularly difficult – if, of course, we are talking about the manual operation of the hoist. The catch is something else – not every craftsman is willing to shell out the money to buy such a device. It is much easier and cheaper to get a handyman. But here, too, a person can suffer a setback – it is not so easy to find smart journeymen. Therefore, there is nothing else but to splurge and mechanize their work. There is another option – you can make a hoist from plasterboard with your own hands. Not only will it be cheaper, but it will also be an interesting activity while waiting for a new order.
How does a drywall elevator work?
Installing the profiles on the walls and ceiling does not cause many difficulties, either for the group that performs this work nor for the person forced to work independently. And if
plasterboard sheets to fix them on the wall is still quite a force for one person, but to raise them to the ceiling and fix it there seems difficult to achieve. In such cases, rescue special collapsible elevators, which come in two varieties mechanical, ie, lever, driven manually, or electrical, with a motor.
The work of the device is based, as a rule, on the cable transmission, that is, if you do the hoist for drywall with your own hands, you can use the most common winch. Another option of transmission – is a worm, such a mechanism is not difficult to make, and at the same time, there is no need to complement the design with an insurance system from the breakage of the cable, for lack of such. Frame in most cases has two planes of rotation – horizontal (on the rack axis) and vertical (around its own axis at an angle of 90 degrees), that is, there must be at least two joints with screw hinges.
Marking the ceiling and fixing the profiles with a hoist
When the installation of a suspended ceiling is done in its own right, it causes difficulties not only with the drywall, which somehow has to be pulled up several meters but also with the marking of the profiles. What’s more, the installation of the rails themselves is also very time-consuming. The elevator is quite a substitute for an extra pair of hands, although it can not play the role of a full-fledged assistant. In particular, a laser level can be easily attached to the frame with the help of clamps or a magnet provided on the device. It is unlikely that anyone has the ability to constantly direct the laser beam strictly in one plane while standing under the ceiling. The lifter needs no rest.
Having installed the device on the edge of the room, all that is left is to move the triangle from place to place, and attach the profiles to the ceiling with brackets so that they are all equally illuminated by the laser on the lower plane. Or, if the marking is made and the hangers are attached to the level, it can be safely removed, and the elevator can be used as a support for the profiles, the frame will hold them at the desired height exactly as long as you need. After laying two rows of profiles on the device at once, and raising them to the ceiling, without much effort we hook them on the hangers, inserting the ends into the guides. Then lower the rod down to its original position, and carry (or roll, if you have wheels) the mechanism to a new place.
Mounting plasterboard with a hoist
Aligning the ceiling with plaster usually takes a lot of time, requires considerable skill, and very often the result is far from perfect. It is much easier to implement conceived, having carried out the installation of plasterboard. However, one cope with the task is quite difficult for the simple reason that one sheet of this material weighs no less than 50 lbs. To lift such weight to the ceiling is more manageable for two, but when there is no partner, it will be replaced by a lifter. To do it we move apart the column supports, set the frame in an upright position, and put a sheet on the clamps.
We move the frame into a horizontal position, and we remove the fixers, they are not needed anymore, but they can catch us in the profiles. Now let’s take hold of the lever or rotary winch hand wheel and smoothly move the bar to the ceiling. At the highest point, the frame rocks a little from side to side, but this does not prevent the sheet plasterboard from sticking firmly to the profiles. It remains only to climb the ladder and firmly fix the covering with screws.
Attachment for carrying drywall alone
A little earlier we mentioned the moment when it is necessary to hoist a heavy sheet of drywall on the elevator frame, and without assistance. Just for such cases, a special handle with a holder was invented. Holding it in your hand, you can easily pick up the sheet of any thickness and lift it without strain on your waist and back. The thing is that usually when you put a sheet on the edge, you have to bend very low to get your fingers under the edge and jerk the material up. A drywall-carrying device lets you do the same thing without having to bend over so much.
It is not difficult to guess how to use such a device. So, it is a solid frame with a handle at the top and a curved grip at the bottom. We need to move the sheet a considerable distance, but there’s no one to help us. We stand with our right shoulder against the material placed on the edge, with the grip of the device already tucked under its center. With the left hand, we grasp the upper edge of the sheet, with the right hand we grasp the handle, slightly bending and flexing our legs. From such a position it is much easier to lift the drywall. By the way, another snag arises.
As mentioned above, it is necessary to put a device for carrying the sheet on the rib. Consequently, it is still necessary to lift the material to a certain height, experiencing a certain load, is not always feasible for the joints and muscles? Not at all. It is enough to push from the side in one of the top corners to get under the sheet a small gap and drive into it a foot counterweight, in the form of a pedal with a kind of fulcrum, at the end of which there is a ledge, into which the plasterboard rests. This is another device that allows you to raise the material to up to three centimeters, without having to make any effort at all.
Conclusion about the plate lifter
The plate lifter is a mechanical device, which is valid for lifting light floor plates or tiles. A plate lifter is then used to lift and transport larger plates. The plate lifter makes one’s work easier and at the same time spares one’s back. It also makes it much easier to see exactly where the tile or floor slab needs to be placed. There are plate lifters with jaws or without. From the size, they also vary. With a lifter, it is safer to lift the slabs and not injure yourself.
Drywall lifts Price:
Under 100$
- FastCap 3rd Hand Support System
Under 200$
- Drywall Lift Panel 11′ Lift
Under 300$
- FDW Lift Drywall Panel Hoist Jack Lifter
- VEVOR Drywall Rolling Lifter Panel
Under 500$
- Troy Drywall Lift 15-Foot Panel Hoist Dry Wall
Under 800$
- PANELLIFT 125 Drywall Lifter
FAQs about the Plate Lifter
✅ How many panels can be supported by a one-panel lifter?
Plate lifters and plate lifts are responsible for specific and individual floor plates, plasterboard, sheetrock, or tiles. However, it always depends on the load capacity, which is the maximum allowed. If the lifting load corresponds to 88lb, several but light floor panels or tiles can be lifted at the same time.
However, it would be advantageous due to the safety to lift each plate individually. In this way, stability is given and the plate lifter is not used incorrectly.
✅ Can a plate lifter be rented?
DIY stores also rent plate lifters. In some circumstances, this also has its advantages, and whether the lifter is tested or needed for a day. When renting tools, there are a few things to keep in mind: The tool belongs only to the hardware store, which is why it should be handled with extreme care. This avoids problems when returning the tools. So it is also crucial to avoid scratches or other damage because for such a thing the consumer will be held liable. It is usually the case that when renting tools, a deposit must be paid so that damage can be financially repaired with it.
✅ Does a tile lifter work for sloped tiles?
Many people wonder whether a plate lifter is also suitable for lifting and transporting plates and tiles if they are processed at an angle on the sides. Normally, a conventional plate lifter is suitable for those that are parallel on the sides. This gives the best possible stability that a plate lifter can apply. It is worth trying to clamp a sloping floor plate or tile, but the plate lifter will not be able to prove its full functionality. The risk is also higher that the lifter will not withstand it all. As much as possible, the lifting of sloping slabs should be avoided.
✅ For whom is a plate lifter suitable?
Especially for people who have a lot to do in the garden, a plate lifter is ideally suited and of great use. A plate lifter is also not out of place on construction sites in the painting or varnishing sector, as well as in the sanitary sector.
Especially in drywall, the plasterboard and sheetrock are lifted better with the help of a lift than with a plate lifter. In private use, the lifter is also used, especially in the garden or in the front yard. It can also be used to work on walkways.