This past Wednesday the beam installation started….. and stopped….
This work is the most important, expensive and time consuming portion of our reno. As mentioned earlier, we are getting three steel beams installed. Two will span the width of the basement, and one will cross the bottom of the stairs, supporting the back of the house. These beams will be recessed into the joists, which will add extra height. Additionally, the beams will be placed on support poles against the foundation walls, reducing the load.
Jerry, the structural guy and this team arrived a little after 7am Wednesday morning and started bringing in the scaffolding, and the temporary support beams, which will support the house as the old beams are removed and the new ones go in. When I left around 8:30am., half of the scaffolding was up.
They made good progress during the day, but stopped as they noticed the two beams that will span the basement were not quite lining up. Jerry, being the perfectionist, decided to stop and send the beam back to the manufacture to fix. Jon and I both appreciate Jerry not accepting anything less than perfect as this is some pretty important work!
Here is what the basement looks like now, they should be starting up again on Monday. The good news is, one more weekend for laundry!
You can see one of the new beams waiting to be installed, sitting on the scaffolding. It is an 10in “I” beam with wood on each side.
The beam on the floor is waiting to go at the bottom of the stairs, replacing that beam with the slice into it (previous owner) on the top right. 