Structural steel is one of my favorite parts of construction. It’s like a great big erector set. With welders, and cranes.
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- Shoring poles are installed under the giant wood beams. We are installing massive steel beams so that we can get rid of the posts in the Active Room. Nobody wants to run into a great big wood post when they are playing. Ouch!
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- The temporary shoring poles are in, and the wood posts are coming out. It looks like something blew up in here.
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- I’m going to miss the bright yellow wood posts.
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- Like I said, great big posts.
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- The wood beams need to be cut out so the steel beam can sit between them. The new steel beam will have metal buckets that hold the old wood beams. The old Douglas Fir wood beams were so tough we had to rent a chain saw.
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- The steel arrives. It’s kind of large.
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- Our steel erectors will primarily use a forklift to erect the steel.
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- This beam takes up nearly the whole street!
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- Is it going to fit in the door?
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- It fits!
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- Like I said, it’s kind of large.
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- Will the forklift fit in the door?
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- Nope. We had to cut the window and doors out of the way to get the forklift into the basement. Fortunately, we are going to replace the windows and doors anyway.
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- A little shave off the top.
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- This is not easy. There is too much in the way.
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- Almost there…
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- It fits!
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- Exciting part is done. The ends of the beam are set on a bracket that is bolted into the concrete.
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- The brackets are secured with screws into the wood…
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- …and expansion bolts into the concrete.
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- This post was to be attached with screws, but welding is better!
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- All done! All that’s left to do is remove the shoring poles.
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