They put the monster beam in the garage attic today. This thing is huge! Take a look at it:
I don’t know what the exact dimensions are, but the garage is 26 feet deep, so that is about how long the beam is. There are three Micro-Lam beams all nailed together there. It is heavy, so they picked it up with the fork lift.
They had to lift it wicked high because it goes in the attic.
They stuffed the beam into the garage attic sideways.
Then they lifted it with a strap so they could swing it around into position.
It is difficult to see in the photo above, but if you look closely you can see that they had to bend the gable ends out of the way to get the ends of the beam in place. First the back end.
Then, the front end.
And there it is…. the biggest beam in the house.
Our builder explained to me that the huge beam is required because the garage attic has knee walls on the sides. Those are the short walls on the sides of the garage up in the attic. Here is a photo of the guys putting up the outside knee wall.
Since the pressure from the roof will try to force the knee walls out, and there is no ceiling tying the tops of the walls together (like in the house attic), the huge beam is required to take the weight of the roof and keep it from flexing under the pressure. “It’s just simple physics”, he said.
OK. That’s all good. I’m a rocket scientist, not a Structural Engineer.
Meanwhile, the mason has been working on the chimney at the other end of the house. Take a look at this.
Is that gorgeous, or what? And inside, the fireplace is just as nice.
This is really looking good.
Below is a photo of the house with the gable ends up on the garage.
Lookin’ better every day!