Great Progress

The last week has gone very well and I now have over half of the 2nd storey exterior walls up and framed.  I really cannot complain about the framing progress lately as all has gone smoothly and is going up plumb and square.

 

I now also have the two-storey metal column that sits on a metal I-Beam in the basement, and supports a major beam in the 2nd floor assembly and part of the beam holding up the roof, installed (grey post to left of stair opening at bottom left of above photo)

I put a lot of nighttime thinking (i.e. sleepless nights) into when and how I was going to install this column.  I wanted to wait until the second floor was framed (so I had an exact dimension for the beam pocket), yet the column supported part of the second floor and at over 18′ long, was not going to be an easy matter of getting into place once the first storey walls were framed and the second storey floor deck was on.  But by using a 20′ 2×4 as a jig, I figured that if I left off some sheathing on the garage wall, I would be able to slip under one top wall plate and over another into its spot.

I am pleased to say, all went well except that is was well over 250 lbs when I was expecting well under 100 lbs.  So again, the aid of dollies and wall/farm jacks was used to lift up into place (easiest would have been to have craned into place, but this was not possible with the tarp in place.

I prevented the upper walls from sliding off the deck with cleats nailed to the lower walls, and then slid the panels into final position using my farm jack.

I have finally had time to upload some more time lapse photos.  The following are ready for your enjoyment and can be found on my YouTube Chanel.

Thanks for visiting!

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” —Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Statesman, Prime Minister, Author, Nobel Prize Winner