2007_09_13 Beams and rafters

On Thursday 9/13/07 a they had to rent a crane from CraneWorks (where Louie Owens works) to hoist the huge beams way up onto the tops of some supports and hold them till the crew could fasten them into place. Below you can see the crane in the driveway supporting the first of the smaller beams that will run across the house from over the kitchen area toward the master bedroom side.



Below you can see the first beam being carefully lined up with their marks so that everything will fit together accurately. The crane support is kept until it is just right.

While it is in the right position they attach rafters to the beam and attach it to the supports underneath. Here Brandon is using his nail gun to attach a rafter on the other side to the beam. By the way, old fashioned hammers are almost never used these days unless they are pulling a nail out since the nail guns shoot in nails accurately, fast, all the way in all at once and with no sore thumbs.

Once the 2nd beam has been positioned end to end with the 1st one it is screwed into the end of the 1st one with multiple long screws diagonally and also attached to the supports and rafters as the 1st one was. Another tool tip - If you're putting in lots of 10 inch screws, etc it's apparently not a good idea to use what most of us homeowners tend to use (cordless 18 volt battery powered drills). You'll notice that they use corded drills. No battery powered drill would be able to handle much of this heavy duty work!

Below Roberto (I think ... it's hard to see which worker it is) is reaching for the rope on the end of the beam so he can more easily get it to angle the way he needs it to go to sit on its supports.

Now they are working on the 3rd of the shorter beams. When this one is done they will be finished with the beams that run across the house from side to side.

Now that the smaller ones are done they're ready for the big one! It's the ridge beam that will run from just at the edge of the loft to just past the French doors at the far end of the great room. It will be the main support above that area to which everything else will attach. It is heavier than the others since it is longer. This one weighs well over 1,000 pounds.

They got it in position, but when they were checking it out to make sure it was fitting correctly they determined that it was 5 and 1/2 inches too long. So, down it came onto the deck so they could cut some off. Then back up onto the log support post by the stairs between the foyer and the great room and onto the support at the other end to be fastened into position.

The other row of beams is attached to the ridge beam by 3 large half inch diameter screws that (if I remember correctly) are 18 inches long and go through the cross beams and into the end of the longer ridge beam.

Below you can now see the ridge beam resting on the top of the 9 inch diameter log support post and butting up against and perpendicular to the other beams.

Below there is a close-up of the way the two sections are joined together and the way the ridge beam rests on the log support.






Now that the ridge beam is up rafters can be attached. You can see how steep this section of the roof will be. I think that Steve said it will be 56 degrees, but I'm not sure. It might have been 55.




Can you guess what the thing below is and for what it's used? No? OK, then I'll give you a hint so you can have a shot at it. See below the picture.

Can't get it yet? Here's another hint so maybe your aim can improve. Where are the hints? There have been 2 already. You missed them? OK, look at the picture below. This is what it helps to do.

Below are the 2 things together. Did you guess it yet?

OK, the wood above with the red thing around a nail is one of the 2x4s nailed to the concrete basement floor that the stairs are built around. The red strip has .22 caliber blanks that are used in a Hilti brand concrete nail gun to shoot nails through the 2x4s into the concrete to anchor them securely to the floor. Steve says that the gun has quite a recoil to it and it makes a good bit of noise.

The last picture is taken from the road in front. There are lots of boards going all over the place, but most of them are just temporary supports to make sure everything stays in alignment while the beams and rafters are all put into place.

We're expecting rain most of the day on Friday so I don't expect the crew will make the drive up here. It'll probably be Monday before they get further work done, but they put in a good day on Thursday!