So far the construction work has only involved taking things down and removing them - but today is the first time we actually built something. Now that we have our party wall agreement we can finally start work. Big step!
Today our primary steel beam was delivered and installed. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here (obviously), so everyone was working.
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| Nov 25th - The fabricated steel delivery |
This beam is the main framing element for the 2nd floor (loft level) and is what allows us to remove the original wooden structural wall that supports the roof truss (that carries the weight of the roof). This is critical to our design, because the old structural wall was in the way - to make everything fit in our new layout, we needed an additional 18". Without the 18" it simply would not work.
The process of ordering a steel beam involves hiring a fabricator who will purchase the raw steel, cut it down to size, and then makes any splices or holes needed for installtion. The beam sizing and design came from our structural engineer and in co-ordination with our installers, we decided to have the beam cut into 3 segments to simplify the installation and avoid having to hire a crane.
The steel installers are separate from the fabricator. I called and interviewed a few different crews, but ended up hiring a pair of Polish workers who were recommended by the steel fabricator. These guys appeared to have a lot of experience, were very thorough in thinking about the staging and installation yet were surprisingly the least expensive with their pricing.
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| Hauling one of the 3 steel pieces up the stairs |
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| All the pieces up in the flat |
I have to admit i was very stressed out about the installation day as they would be slowly removing the old wooden structural wall while installing the beam. If anything went wrong the entire roof could collapse! I think I refrained from mentioning this minor detail to "Aglaya". Fortunately I could see very quickly that these really guys knew what they were doing.
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| Nov 26th - The first piece installed into the wall and tied up temporarily |
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| Bracing the wood truss and removing part of the wood structural wall |
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| Lifting the 2nd steel piece into place. |
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| Tightening the splices |
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| The finished beam! |
