Sunday, July 20, 2008

LVL's Are Heavy

Laminated Veneer Lumber is the beam material of choice these days. The large header over the slider is made up of three 14" LVL's. When it was screwed together and nailed to the jacks and studs, it was too heavy for two people to stand up. But with two people on each end (thanks for helping Sam) it went up without a struggle. The beams running down the center of the house are made of two LVL's screwed together. Two of them are about 15' long. Again, they were too heavy to lift into place at the top of the wall. I ended up unscrewing them and lifting a half at a time. All but a few of the joists for the 2nd floor are in place. I haven't framed the opening for the stairwell yet. With the arrival of the boards I'm using as a sub floor, we'll be ready to deck over the 2nd floor. Then the second floor walls will go up. By the end of the week we might have the 2nd floor framed.

1 comment:

rodolph sheahan said...

Wouldn't it be nice to have a backhoe with a bucket. Maybe you could ask Santa