After getting most of the old deck removed, I needed to remove the old concrete posts that were sunk into the ground. In hindsight I might have been able to reuse them where they were, but they were not in quite the right place. So let’s get them out of there!
The posts were sitting about 2-1/2 to 3 feet into the ground, I was able to dig around the top of the post and get them loose side to side, but no way could I lift them out.
I originally considered renting or buying an old engine hoist to try and pick them up, but getting a hoist transported and navigated around the mud of the back yard did not sound fun.
Then I landed on the greatest scientific and engineering body of all: Rednecks. A 2×4 “tripod” is often used while deer hunting to clean the deer, similar to this video (of the tripod construction, not the deer cleaning):
Based on that I grabbed a chain hoist from Harbor Freight, the biggest bolt I could find at Lowes, and some scrap 2×6’s later we get this OSHA violating monstrosity:
And y’know what? Damned if it didn’t work perfectly!
The tripod contraption worked perfectly. I’m not gonna say it’s safe, I’m sure there’s a thousand ways it could have gone wrong, but it felt very solid. The boards had no flex, the bolt didn’t bend or back off, and the soft mud/soil it was in worked to it’s advantage giving the “tripod” something to bite into.
I wouldn’t use it to pull on things, mind you, this was just lifting the weight of the already loose pillar. But damned if I don’t feel like an Egyptian building the pyramid!