Goneth the gantry, welcome the XY system

Before we moved down to Hayling Island back in December 2020, we had to organise a gantry hoist with Hampshire county council which was installed days before we moved. It was always a temporary measure while we waited for our Disabled Facilities Grant to be approved, two weeks ago it was approved, I was so happy as the hoisting system known as an XY system is so much better, and it will allow me to be hoisted in more than one place in the bedroom.

Yesterday was the day, and bang on 9:30 the guys arrived from Liftech Systems.
 I was really impressed, three of them came in all masked up and kept their social distance while explaining to hubby and I what was going to happen. We even offered them a hot drink but got told “thank you very much, but we need to get on, maybe later”. Of course I saw this as an opportunity to write a blog but not having a PA on a Thursday meant hubby was chief photographer (no, the only photographer). I did hope his photography was going to get better than this:

 

The first job was to remove the existing gantry hoist. A quick no mess simple job and all we have to do is notify the AJM (the stores) to come and collect it.

 

Now for the real work, hubby was in and out taking pictures from a safe distance keeping me updated, but of course hubby then needed to explain what the guys were doing because I’m afraid to admit, I hadn’t got a clue. It’s a good job he is a technical disabled lift engineer and has knowledge in this field. I couldn’t understand why there was a pole going up in the middle of our room, until he explained that was to hold the laser that made sure it was all level. If you closely look in the picture below you can see the red line that goes across the top of the wall.

 

 

Whilst I might not understand the technical stuff, I do appreciate the sound of a drill and a vacuum cleaner, this makes me happy because all the brick work/dust was not dropping straight on to the floor, but caught by good old Henry, and if he missed there were also dust sheets down on the floor. 
The holes were drilled and filled with a chemical fixer, and metal inserts were installed. Then the brackets were screwed in to the metal inserts, and the tracks that had already been cut down to size outside, were hung up. I think I have it right, hubby had to explain it to me several times before I managed to make some sense of it!

 

After the tracks were up, the hoist unit and six point spreader bar were attached, plus a charging unit, all of which were like a great big jigsaw puzzle the guys had to put together.

 

Now all up, the only thing left to do was to weight test it, this bit I do understand because when we lived in Longwick we housed 150kg of hubby’s weights for his disabled access lift testing. Thankfully they also used 150kg, after all I have eaten an awful lot of chocolate during lockdown (she says while eating more chocolate).

 

All was completed in time for my carers to test it out during my evening call.

 

I am so pleased with the final outcome, the installation went without any hitches, and most importantly for me, apart from the hoist appearing you couldn’t tell they had even been in. The biggest benefit of all is how much additional room I have in our bedroom. First thing this morning, hubby and my PA (under my guidance) rearranged the bedroom, I am so delighted and I wouldn’t have any hesitation in recommending Liftech Systems to install a hoist system.