The Big Addition: Steel

Steel is real

Once in the driveway, King Crane deployed outriggers to steady the crane, and by 7:30, steel was being unloaded onto the driveway and the slab. Around 8:30, the first vertical girder was lifted into place and by 9:20, the two ends and lower cross beam (the goalpost) was in place. The center upright was next, followed by the middle cross beams. By 10, Dietrich had 6 of 8 girders in place.

Dietrich had ordered a boom lift (ie, aerial platform) to work on welding. Problem was it came on a semi - very tough to get a semi to our driveway. Andy was free. How fast does it go? 5 mph? No problem. Andy offered to drive it down from the fire station. Got to try new things. A few pictures here of him arriving - in one piece.

By 10:15 the moment frame was in place and bolted together. The remaining girder (that carries the transition from the main house to the great room) needs 6 "knives" welded onto it; the knives slot into the roof rafters and are bolted through (you'll see this later). One side of the roof is a 6 in 12 pitch; the other, 3 in 12. The knives were all made 4 in 12. Oops! So Dietrich just set up a jig at the back of the truck and recut them to the correct angles with a torch. Then, they were welded. The plan was to hoist that girder as well, but since the crane needs to come back to do the rafters anyway... a wise choice not to rush things.

While Dietrich's crew took a lunch break, the sun finally came out (around 1:30). The moment frame is bolted together, and King crane has left the building. A few shots here of the frame in place. Now, every joint needs to be welded...

Welding

Second Lift

Much of the work was preparing for the second lift - the transition beam and the 3 exposed 6x14 roof rafters for the great room. Recall that the 6 "knives" in the beam slot into the 3 existing and 3 new rafters. Creating those slots is a multi-step process involving drilling, pre-cutting the edge of the slots, then using a chainsaw to carve out the core.

Getting the crane here was a scheduling challenge, first Wednesday, then Thursday. Considering that it was very windy on Wednesday, it worked out for the best. While awaiting the crane, garage framing got going. You can see temporary plywood and plastic on the walls and roof of the main house in some pictures. West Coast Cranes showed up around 4PM for the late-afternoon lift. The crane is used to flip, lift and set the transition beam, then lift and set the three 24 foot 6x14 douglas fir roof rafters for the great room. It took just about an hour to set the transition beam - getting all of the attachment points to line up was tricky. It was quite close from the prep work, but some trimming and pounding was necessary. The rafters only took about 25 minutes!

Once the crane left, the rafters were bolted to the knives. A very tricky process - imagine drilling a 5/8 inch hole straight through a 6-by and hit a target half way through. About an hour and a bit later, the bolts are in place.

Friday was a strange weather day - alternating bright sun with scary clouds. The goal was to finish framing the ceiling of the 1-bay garage and wrap up the house for weather as the forecast was for rain Saturday. Just to get an idea for the 2-bay floor level, a lightweight truss joist was temporarily set - this will be replaced next week with a 16 inch paralam which probably weighs about 300 pounds. As all of the structural steel is installed now, we'll close out this phase!