Tag: beam

Painting the Beam

November 30, 2015 / / 0 Comments

We put in the steel beam in the basement over two-and-a-half years ago. Our friend Mike, who got us the steel and helped us put it in, told us at the time that when the weather got warm we should paint it. We didn’t get around to doing that until now. For the record, I don’t recommend that.

Steel needs to be primed at a minimum to keep it from rusting and our basement is especially humid. Hopefully our new weeping system will help improve that but the beam developed some surface rust since we put it in. Since we’re planning to move into the basement and leave the concrete floor bare (stained and sealed) it makes sense to do any painting we can before the new floor goes in. Maybe not as much sense as painting it right away or anytime before we started the dig out, but more than waiting any longer.

Cleaned
Starting Priming
Priming progress
Priming done

I started with a thorough cleaning, using the air compressor nozzle, the shop vac, and a wet rag to get the accumulated dust and rust off. With that done I put on a coat of rust-inhibiting metal primer. I have a sprayer but with all the nooks and crannies between the joists I just used a brush. Cleaning actually took longer than priming, and as soon as it was done I wondered why I hadn’t done it a couple years ago.

Starting first coat
First coat progress
First coat done
Second coat done

Once that was done I should have put the top coat on right away. Instead I did all the masonry on the windows which involved making a bunch of dust with the angle grinder, so when I circled back several weeks later to finally do it, I had to wipe it down all over again. I brushed on two coats of high-gloss white metal paint and now my neck is sore, but the beam looks good. The plan is to paint the ceiling joists next and we will use the sprayer for that. I’m giving the paint a couple days to dry before I vacuum out the joist bays and throw a bunch more dust around; I don’t want it to stick to the beam.

First Floor Beam: Column Bases

May 24, 2013 / / 0 Comments

After I got the beam up, I left the temporary wall in place because I hadn’t anchored the bases of the columns. The two outside columns at the front and back sit on a large wood 6×8 sill that sits on top of the brick foundation. I installed holddowns on either side of the columns that were anchored through the wood and into the brick with sleeve anchors.

Hold-down bracket

Hold-down bracket

The middle two columns sit on the steel beam in the basement, directly above the steel columns, thus carrying the weight of the house straight down to the footings. To attach the columns I put angle brackets to either side with a bolt through the column. Dean and his dad came over on Wednesday evening and welded the brackets to the steel beam.

Dean welding

Dean welding

I ran into some difficulty getting the holes drilled for the bolts because the hole is positioned at roughly the same height as the top of the floor joists. The drill couldn’t go in straight, so the holes kept going at an angle. I finally managed to get the hole drilled by using the drill bit with a socket wrench and then pounding the bolt through with a hammer.

Welded column base

Welded column base

With everything secured in place, I no longer have to worry about anything knocking the columns out of place. Last night I took down the rest of the temporary wall that ran parallel to the beam. For the first time we got a look at our first floor opened up, with the exception of the chimney (that will come later).

First floor opened up

First floor opened up

You can also see the stair opening that Matt B and I worked on last week. I’ll have a separate post about that once I finish some remaining items on that project. A big thanks to Dean for welding the brackets!

First Floor Beam: Installation

May 6, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Last week Sunday morning on short notice, Eriq and Dean arrived to help me install the beam in the first floor. After getting some coffee we got to work taking out the load bearing wall. Much like the basement beam I had held off taking it out until the day of to minimize the time that the house was resting on the temporary wall. The downside to this is it cost some time, and that’s something we wound up running out of.

Dean and Eriq

Dean and Eriq

I mentioned in an earlier post that the brackets I bought were the wrong size, meaning that the beams fit, but there was no wiggle room. This made getting the pieces properly seated quite difficult, especially since this was a retrofit. In new construction they can drop the beams into the bracket from above. In our case we needed to wedge them in from below.

First section installed

First section installed

The real difficulty started with the second section, because the bracket was positioned close to the ceiling joist, making it nearly impossible to fit the beam sections in. We wound up using a sledge hammer and a wood block to pound each individual section into the bracket, sometimes a sixteenth of an inch at a time. Eventually it succumbed to brute force and we got the second section in place.

Second section in progress

Second section in progress

This picture helps explain a bit better (sorry it’s a bit dark). Each beam section is made up of three separate LVL pieces. There are three sections, so a total of nine beam pieces. Here we’re propping up one end of the second section on a makeshift post, since there’s no way to put it into both brackets at the same time. By the time we finished getting the second beam section up the day was already spent.

I worked on the project a couple of nights during the week, but didn’t make significant progress. It turned out that in order for the beam to be level the end column needed to be shorter than we’d made it. The last couple floor joists are inexplicable raised up by nearly an inch (!) which will make levelling that floor an interesting venture down the road. I also learned that in order to get the beams snug in the bracket you should shave the corners.

Finally yesterday I was able to get cracking on it and got the last beam section up. That proved to be the easy part. Getting all of the holes drilled for the bolts was maddeningly difficult for some reason. I couldn’t manage to drill straight through and my cordless drill batteries kept running out and I’d have to wait while it recharged. I think I should buy a corded drill.

Ready for last column

Ready for last column

I put the laser level up on top of a window and pointed it at the beam (barely visible), which is how I determined that the last column was too tall. Then I put up a string line to make sure that the beam was straight across the three sections. Sarah helped me get the two beams into alignment. First we lowered a bottle jack until there was some play, pulled it into position, and then jacked it back up. Once everything was in place I measured, cut, and installed the last column.

Beam installed

Beam installed

Sorry this picture is dark, but it does show the finished beam. I haven’t gotten the temporary wall taken down yet; I’m waiting until I have the column bases anchored properly. It shouldn’t really matter, but I’m playing it safe. I ordered some brackets I need to do that, but they haven’t shown up yet. I also need to cut off the excess bolts. The instructions called for 6½” bolts, but they’re usually only sold in one-inch increments.

I’m sore today, much as I was last Monday, and toward the end yesterday I was pretty frustrated, but it’s up. I’d like to thank Dean and Eriq for their assistance last weekend. This was a big project to do with just three people and they really kicked ass.

First Floor Beam: Delivery

April 26, 2013 / / 0 Comments
LVL Delivery

LVL Delivery

This morning the truck delivering the first floor beam parts arrived. Sarah and I were waiting for him, though unfortunately there weren’t any open spots along our street. I had expected a smaller truck that we’d offload pieces from individually, but he has a forklift on the back and was able to take the whole skid off in one shot.

Offloading the beam

Offloading the beam

He left it on the corner of the sidewalk and from there Sarah and I brought the pieces into the house one by one. When I scheduled the delivery they said not all of the column caps were in, but everything was delivered so it must have shown up in the mean time. Unfortunately the LVL must have been left out in the recent rains, because it was not only wet but a couple of the beam pieces actually warped. I’m not too happy about that. One of the supposed advantages of engineered wood is that it’s 100% straight and true, but that’s just when it’s made. Leaving it out in the elements, especially the rain we’ve had this month will warp nearly any wood-based product.

Beam pieces

Beam pieces

We put the warped pieces on the bottom and stacked everything on top of it. We’re hoping it will at least partially bow back into shape. If not I’ll have a fun time with the engineered screws getting it tight enough together that it will fit in the brackets. Tonight I’ll test fit and make sure the brackets will work and provided they will I’ll go pick up the bolts I need. Hopefully I can get the beam installed shortly.

First Floor Beam: Ordering Parts

April 18, 2013 / / 0 Comments
LVL Beams

LVL Beams

I finally got the beam on order (technically beams since there are nine pieces). Actually, I placed the order a week and a half ago. Given how long it’s taking to come in, I should have ordered it much sooner. I wound up ordering from Home Depot after checking with several different lumber yards. I ordered Weyerhauser Microllam, which is SFI Certified and classified as ultra low-emitting formaldehyde, the lowest possible for engineered wood. Microllam is a brand of LVL, or laminated veneer lumber, which is much stronger and stiffer than regular wood.

Things got more complicated when I started looking at brackets.The beam will be supported by a total of four columns that will be incorporated into the walls. Each of these columns will have both a “column cap” which is a metal bracket that connects the column to the beam, and a column base, which will be welded to the steel beam in the basement. The beam itself consists of three sections, each of which is three layers of 1 ¾” thick LVL, for a total of 5 ¼”. The columns are 3 ½” x 5 ¼” PSL (parallel strand lumber).

Column Cap

I spent a lot of time on Simpson Strong-Tie website reading specifications and learning about the different brackets, but I should have spent a bit more. After I ordered, I went back to the website to figure out what fasteners I needed to put it all together. First I noticed a note stating that for 5 ¼” LVL I should have ordered the 5 ½” bracket instead of the 5 ¼” bracket. I’m hoping it will still work because there’s a 15% restocking fee on special order returns and these brackets are more expensive than you’d expect. Then I discovered that the column caps I ordered require machine bolts that go all the way through the beam and columns, whereas if I had ordered the “Q” line, I could have used screws (albeit special “SDS” screws). I’d much prefer to use the screws, since they’d not only be easier to install but they won’t stick out from the surface of the bracket and complicate drywalling. For now I decided to hold off ordering the bolts, because if the brackets wind up not fitting I’ll return them and order the 5 ½” Q versions and use the SDS screws instead.

In addition to the column caps and the bolts (or screws) to connect them to the beams and columns, I need fasteners to connect the three layers of LVL beam together. I did some research and settled on Trusslok engineered wood screws, which are specifically designed for the purpose. The advantage over nails is that I only need about a quarter as many and can put them all in from one side. The other option was bolts, which (as I mentioned) make drywalling more difficult. I also tried ordering some low-VOC polyurethane adhesive to glue the beams together in addition to the screws (not necessary, but it would add additional strength), but the company wound up canceling my order. Since I’m now concerned about the beams fitting into the bracket I decided to skip the glue, since it has the potential to make the beams slightly thicker.

Once my order finally comes in I’ll need to schedule delivery from the store and then I’ll find out if the brackets will work. Given how expensive the LVL (and the hardware to install it) has wound up being, if I had it to do over I’d use steel. It would be a lower profile (stick down less from the ceiling) and not any more money.