Make a hole..
We had already built the walls before we figured out our solution.. so had to cut out holes in the walls to drive the forklift into. Figured out that we could set the beam on the scissor lift, and carefully lift it up.. Would I do this again? Not if I could avoid it.. This scared the hell out of me..October 2017
We got a quote to put up the steel of over $5000.00 so me being me, how hard could this be? The beams are only 600 lbs each.. Should be ok, right?
Support Poles up!
Took me, my wife and 3 teenagers to stand each of these poles up, bolt them to the floor and pray they did not go over.. (they didn\’t) while we put up the beams.. This took about an hour..
First Beam
Had to start from the top and go down.. Did I mention I don\’t like heights? I was terrified doing this, but hey.. I planned it well and we had no mishaps!Its up!
This took about 5 hours to complete, saving us 5k in the process. Once the first beam was up, it was not too bad. Measurements were correct and everything went up with no issues.
Ready for wood
After beam installation, we installed a 2×12 on each side of the metal beam to mount all the wood to. This was not too hard, just took a lot of time. Matt and I shared a ladder on this a lot.
November
Mounting the floor joists to the beam was not bad at all. This makes for a really strong structure. The joists cannot go up or down on the end due to the steel at the top and bottom of the beam. I really like how this worked out.
First \”floor\” done
Joists and plywood completed on the first floor. This is starting to come together. Notice there are no stairs. You can jump right? I keep getting questions as to how we will get up to the first floor. I have a plan, no worries.
Discounts?
We were fortunate to start this when 84 lumber in Buchannon was going out of business, so we got a lot of our lumber from there at a heavy discount. Not sure we would have completed this without the discounts.. To include, windows, plywood, joists, insulation, Pine boards for tasting room and much more.
December First Floor
Crazy how a crude drawing on paper can take shape, its bigger built then it looks on a scratchpad. We made some changes, but everything is working out well. Yes the ground floor is 10ft, First is 8ft.
Its almost Christmas!
Coming up to the end of the year, the second floor is almost done, at this point my fear of heights is going away.. working 30 ft in the air I guess you get used to it after a while. Rick Hayhurst was instrumental in getting a lot of this done for us. Without his help, we would have never made it this far.