With the
steel ring beam and
primary steel beam both in place, we're now able to start framing the loft level, which will become the 2nd floor of the flat.
This new floor will be framed with wood beams that are inserted into these new steel beams for support, spanning between them. Installing this floor is necessary to begin work on the roof as it will provide a place for us to work from at the roof level.
We began by cutting all the wood beams to the correct size - for now we're just doing 7 beams and stopping where the opening for the new staircase will begin.
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| Cutting the 1st loft beam |
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| A production line (of sorts) cutting all the beams |
The cutting was straightforward, but once we started lifting the beams into place, it became apparent that they did not align correctly with the top of the steel beams which will be the level of the plywood sub-floor. To get them to align, we had to notch each beam so it would align properly.
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| The loft beams loosely in place (inserted into the steel ring beam) |
Once enough beams were in place, we could loosely lay down plywood to walk on and from there were able to work a little easier, setting the remaining beams and then temporarily fixing the plywood so we could safely work on the roof...
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| Some loose plywood sitting on-top of the beams |
