How to get shingles and heavy building materials onto a roof
Carrying heavy bundles of shingles up a ladder takes countless exhausting trips. People either need a way to hoist materials themselves or a reliable service to hire out when renting a crane isn't an option.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Making numerous trips up and down a ladder carrying a few shingles at a time
- 2Using a modified drywall lift with a custom plywood platform and 2x4 stops to hoist shingle bundles
- 3Hiring a crane company directly
- 4Having an HVAC company schedule and coordinate the crane lift
- 5Lifting equipment by hand
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/Roofing1 person · September 2026
“Just anything to keep me from making a million trips up and down the ladder with only a few shingles at a time.”source ↗
theegreenbasturd · r/Roofing · 2 upvotes
r/hvacadvice1 person · September 2026
“Are there services that do that? I know i coukd rent a crane but as i have no kniwkedge of how to use one seems wise to hire out. How would i find that type of service?”source ↗
VillainNomFour · r/hvacadvice
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5Are ridge hooks enough to secure a roof ladder?
- 3Why are my roof shingles lifting near the gutters?
- 4How to shingle around roof bends and height differences?
- 4Roofers left mono roof top exposed without a cap
- 4Can I install siding, soffit, and fascia before roof shingles?
- 9How to fix cement fiber siding touching roof shingles