Continuing With The Second Floor Beams

The first order of business this week was unloading the two flatbeds that arrived with all our finish materials. This took a good sized 4 wheel drive fork lift.

Not only were all the interior finish materials on these two trucks but all the doors and windows were delivered as well. Here are the two drivers unloading one of our back doors.

Kuhns Brothers kits are all top quality with a complete Anderson windows package included with each kit.

Remember Betsy from last week? With the trucks unloaded and everything under lock and key it was time to install Betsy. In case you've forgotten, this little chunk-o-log is 12" x 8" x 18' and weighs approximately 450 lbs. With just two of us to hoist a beam of this size in place, things could get very interesting before this day is over.

Before Betsy can be installed two mortises for 8" x 8" support posts have to chiseled into the bottom. Here is our expert chiseler cleaning up one of these pockets.

Once the mortises are complete the beam was muscled up one rung at a time till it eventually sat on the top of the scaffolding. This positioned the beam about 6" below its final resting place.

Again muscle was used to move the beam up to its waiting pockets. Glad that little job is over!

After the beam is in place it is lifted slightly so the support posts can be set into their mortises. A lag bolt is used both from the top and bottom to secure these posts once everything is square and plumb.

With Betsy installed we took the opportunity to use the fork lift to hoist about 50 sheets of 3/4" OSB to the second floor. This material will eventually become part of the sub floor but for now it gives us a nice little area of shade to work in. Now for the next task.

Say hello to Big Bertha. This is Betsy's big sister. Bertha is the main support for the loft system and is the same size as Betsy with one exception. Bertha is 4' longer. Where's Arnold when you really need him? Not to worry, he'll be back just as soon as his tenure as "The Governator" is over.

Lucky for us we had to trim a couple feet off this chunk-o-log. Unless you have an extremely large circular saw any cut in such a large beam has to be finished using a good old hand saw. Here's the boss completing this cut.

Bertha was muscled up on the scaffolding in exactly the same manor as Betsy. This beam however had to have several pockets chiseled out as well as mortises for support beams completed before installation.

Bertha is so heavy that it took both of us on each end to maneuver this beam into position. As you can see we had to build a wall to support one end. There are other supporting walls that have to be built prior to installation of the rest of the second floor system as you will see later.

This joint where Bertha and Betsy intersect was originally designed to use an ugly metal support bracket. After some discussion with the building inspectors we were able to delete this metal support by installing an extra 8" x 8" support post directly under this location. So instead of one support Betsy got two. Both posts will help define the previously designed island in the kitchen. Now instead of an ugly metal bracket we have a neat mortise and tenon joint.

Just as with Betsy, Bertha has two 8" square support posts. The fireplace will eventually occupy the space between these supports but that will be included in a later update.

Now that both Betsy and Bertha are installed we can continue the installation of the second floor support beams. Once this was finished some of the OSB was moved over to create more shade.

Before we can complete the second floor a couple more support walls need to be built. The wall on the left is a 2" x 6" 24" on center non supporting wall that will carry heating and air conditioning ducts as well as some plumbing to the second floor. The wall on the right is a 2" x 4" 16" on center supporting wall. 16' beams will run from the front and rear of the house and will intersect directly over this wall.

Finally another 2" x 4" wall is added to tie the structure together and complete most of the master bedroom closet. We are now ready for the rest of the second floor beams.

As you can see things haven't really cooled down much, even with the rain. Already 97 degrees and it's not even 11:00 AM.

That's all for this week. Monday we will try to get the last 12 beams installed. Then we're off to Louisville, KY. for a few days of rest. Look for the next update in a couple weeks.

Check back soon.

ADDENDUM

Just an update to let you know we finally finished installing all the second floor beams. In this shot my son and I are lifting one end of a 16 footer up to the top of the log wall. The other end is already sitting on top of the bedroom closet supporting wall.

Here are the master bedroom beams. Each beam meets another over the supporting wall. There the beams are tied together with a metal band as well as lagged into the wall so there is no chance of separation.

This is the 2 1/2 foot metal band that ties the beams together. It is securely nailed into both beams.

After all the beams were installed we continued the OSB above to create more shade and allow us to walk and work on the second floor.

That really is all for this week. Next update in two weeks.