Day #59
June 2, 2019 – With good luck and lots of hard work we plan to have the structural beam installed by the end of the day.
We made any early morning run to the Lewistown Lowe’s to pick up the lumber and plywood to construct the beam.
Beam Construction
Our structural beam is constructed with three layers of 2×10’s separated by two layers of 1/2 inch plywood. The layers are glued with Loctite PL Urethane based adhesive. After gluing, it is nailed together with 16d nails. The nailing pattern is in three rows with the nails 8 inches on center. The length is 20 feet end to end. It is very heavy!
Beam Preparation
After the beam construction we set up some ladders and got ready to lift it into place. The fun part..! All of the necessary openings and holes were previously cut so the only thing that remained was getting it in there.
Beam Installation
“Beam Master” Troy hoisted the beam up into the roof opening. Apprentice “Beam Master” Ryan managed the anchor point of the come along. “Commander Gyeem Beam” operated the come along. With a lot of effort, some sweat, and some cursing the “Beam Team” managed to pull it into place.
My thankx to Troy, Megan, Ryan, Angelie and Robrandi, a.k.a. the “Beam Team”, for your help. We wouldn’t have been able to get this thing in place without all of you guys.
The image below shows the 4×4 post we installed to temporarily support the living room ceiling. To the left of the post is “Beam Master” Troy in full regalia!
PS: As a follow up to a previous post, our snapping turtle friend, T.S. Snappy has officially moved into the puddle in front of the neighbors cottage.
