Steelwork

We're building an extension. The first big job is more or less complete - the installation of a huge steel I-beam. The guy from building control said he'd never seen a bit of steel so big in a house like this.


So how did we get it in? Well, by brute force. The thing weighs about 230kg, about the same as 3 big blokes - so not so heavy that 5 big blokes and me can't move it about.

You might have thought that lifting it off a lorry and shoving it through an upstairs window constitutes more than just 'moving it about', but apparently not; that was the very technique employed.


So what is it sat on? At one end, it is built in to the gable end of the house. Fitting the pad stone was fun... for a while we thought we might have to demolish the chimney stack. Fortunately not. The pad stone is visible in the close-up below - it is the grey concrete thing the beam is sitting on. The brickwork around it holds it in place.


What about the other end? This sits on a steel column which passes all the way down through the house to a new concrete foundation below the ground floor. Here is where it joins the beam...


here is where it hits the floor...


and here is the hole it goes through to get downstairs.



Next is some boring making good, followed by DEMOLITION! Can't wait :-)