How to Get a 200# Loom Upstairs

Here she is in her own room upstairs, but I thought you might be interested in how she got there ...

When we went to pick it up, we had to rent a Uhaul van to get her home, because it's too big to fit in either of our cars.   It was about $100 ($20 plus mileage and other fees).  Not bad, really.  A neighbor helped get it onto the porch.

Floor Loom Weights   Weights Are Approximate
Weaving Width	4 Shaft	8 Shaft
30"	150 lbs.	180 lbs.
36"	160 lbs.	190 lbs.
42"	170 lbs.	200 lbs.

Here are the specs from the Kessenich Looms website: 200 pounds!

Four Shaft looms are 46” front to back beam.
Eight Shaft looms are 51" front to back beam.
 
Widths on all 4 and 8 Shaft looms are 16” 
wider than the weaving width.  Shelves add 10" in overall width.

Height on all 4 and 8 Shaft floor looms are: 40” high at the castle when open

60” high and 28” deep when folded.

Although it feels lighter than the 4-shaft loom.  I think it's the difference in the wood. This one is cherry; I think the other one might be red oak -- a heavier, denser wood.
 

This is worth posting, because I know people will wonder how in the world we moved that very large loom up our very narrow stairs and into its own room.

 

Here it is sitting on the porch in the folded / stowed position, awaiting it's trip upstairs. 

 

Here's the side view.

Kessenich Looms are brilliantly designed and solidly built! 

  

My husband and son helped get it upstairs.

We removed a few parts of the loom in effort to lighten the load going up the stairs.

We removed the 8 shafts, full of steel heddles, along with the beater bar.  That made quite a difference for the weight, and made it much more manageable.

The Challenge: These are the stairs -- steep and narrow.

The 3 of us took it step-by-step -- literally and got it up the steep and narrow stairs, until we could rest 2 feet on the lip of the landing, just under the railing.

 This is the view from below ...

Then my husband slipped in a board that spanned the entire stair well opening.  And we were able to rest the other 2 feet on that makeshift "landing" board.    That gave us a breather to rest for the nest stage ...

 

Here's the view from upstairs, with the loom sort of "suspended" exactly where you would not expect such a heavy piece of equipment! 

 

Here's the view from the landing upstairs, with the loom resting 2 feet on the landing under the railing, and 2 feet on the temporary plank.  There is a "moving" blanket covering the railing in preparation for the next step.

 

For the next step, we flipped the loom over the railing, because it was too big to go around the corner at the top of the steps.  [There's a back breaker from the roof there, and the landing is just too narrow.] 

In this photo, it is up-side-down.  You can see the treadles on top where they would not normally be. 

 Here's a better look at the support board spanning the length of the stairwell, parallel to the railing, and the upside-down loom on the landing.  That simple board made this operation possible!

 

 Here's another view of the folded position.  It spent the night in our bedroom because we still had to finish painting the loom room before her arrival.

 

Here, my husband is re-attaching the beater bar, which we removed for the transport.

 

 

 

The 8 shafts are still sitting against the wall.  Removing these also made it much easier to and lighter to move upstairs.  These are still out-of-place until I do a little re-habbing on the new loom. 

 

Voi la!

Whoah be to anyone who has to move it back down someday!