SAFEtey on the stairs

Can you give me a hand he said!!
I need to get a safe up a flight of steps into the office, 2 chaps lifted it into the back of a van so its' not that big he said...

Well not that big turned out out to be very big! also the flight of steps turned out to be 2 flights of stairs with a 180' landing half way.
After a quick look at the job we had some idea of what we needed so into the van and drove to a couple of places we know to pick up a bit of kit, a wheeled trolley and some ratchet straps is what we ended up with.
We manhandled the safe onto the trolley to get it along the side alley and into the front door of the building with a brief stop to remove the bottom plinth as it was full of rather smelly water.
We attached a ratchet strap round the safe then another strap led to the hand winch cable, the winch was attached to a 4x4 timber placed across the entrance to the loos.
With 2 planks on the stairs we started to winch. Slow but steady to the end of winch pull, wedge safe with 3rd timber plank while winch and strap were adjusted to get second bite then third.
At the top of the first flight was a narrow landing and straight ahead was a set of 3 step which we had to get the safe up so we could then stand it up to maneuver it along the landing to the second flight we had to climb. This was the most difficult part as we had no where to attach the winch so had to use a ratchet strap and pull a bit at a time.

After a struggle we got it stood up and were able to move it to the base of the second flight. Due to lack of space we rocked the safe onto a 4x4 timber then a second so we could get it onto the first step and have enough room to lie it down for the final winch. This pull was easier as we now knew what we were doing and we could also place the winch further back due to another room further back. In the picture you can make out some timbers with the jack in the middle, this was a method of transfering some of the strain from one stud wall to another to stop the walls from pulling off the floor.
After all that a well deserved cuppa, white and one please :)

the pit

Fancy digging a hole and filling it with concrete he said!
Turned out to be a base for a large tumbling machine, dig a 3m square hole 1.5m deep add a 300mm concrete base then 200mm concrete walls, stick a wedge of foam to the concrete and fill the hole with more concrete and bolt the machine to the top.
Theory is that the foam allows the large center block to move a little reducing the vibration transmitted to the surrounding floor.

Had a minor mishap, the concrete for the base turned up over 2 hours late and after we had said forget it and were packed ready to leave. We decided to stay late and get it done but that was the wrong decision as the concrete was old and very dry with a driver who was unwilling to wet it enough. This meant the poker was no use for leveling so we had to get in and tamp it. 15 mins and we could stand on it!! Unfortunately this meant we ended up with a rubbish finish.
Luckily for us the concrete company admitted liability and we dug it back out and started again. next load was great, poured wet, poker leveled it nice and we just ran a float over the top for a final finish.
When that was cured we set the wall forms in and made sure they stayed put by holding down with two 1 ton stillages of steel bars. Thats it for the moment as the company now has to make the chassis for the tumbler so we can cast it into the concrete.