Shop and storage barn

[hayden]

Yea, it's a bit frustrating. These are manufactured beams, and the engineer forgot to add the thickness of one of the walls, hence the 5 1/2" shortage. We could have sent them back and waited for replacements, but I think it will all work out fine. They are designed to sit on top of 3 1/2" posts, so we are 1 1/2" short of meeting the structural requirement. That can be made up by fattening one of the posts with a sister 2x6.

 

[EddieWalker]

Next are the laminated beams going in.

The beams came 5 1/2" short, so we just centered them for now. We'll probably build out the end posts a bit to make up the difference.

Was it cut too short, ordered pre cut or did you buy the standard length and not realize how long you needed it?

I agree that building up the wall to support it is your only real option short of buying a new beam.

The building looks good and as always, it's impressive to see your progress!!

Eddie

 

[hayden]

Was it cut too short, ordered pre cut or did you buy the standard length and not realize how long you needed it?

They were ordered pre-cut. Somewhere between ordering and cutting it came out short. I don't know for sure, but my guess would be that the order got placed incorrectly. Exactly where things broke down I'm not sure. If I were doing this day in and day out I'd be more motivated to sort out exactly what went wrong in the interest of preventing it in the future, but in this situation I think it would just be a witch hunt and possibly damage relations with my suppliers and builder, so I'm just looking at how to move forward. I suspect my builder will be more interested in figuring out what went wrong. I know he was planning a "what the heck" visit to the supplier.

 

[EddieWalker]

Too bad. I thought that maybe it was something different, but it sounds like somebody droped the ball and should make it right. If I had a choice, I would want the proper length beam in there. It's what you paid for, and you will have to live with the results forever. Taking the time to do it right and make it like you are paying for it to be is more important then losing a few days or pissing off the people you've hired to do it the way you want it done.

The reason you hire a General Contrator is to make sure these things don't happen, and when they do, to fix them. I'm curious what he's going to do to make this right. I don't think building up the wall to make up the difference is my idea of making it right, but a quicky fix to an oops. If you had made the mistake, then that is totally different and something that you can decide to live with or not. Since you didn't make the mistake, you shouldn't have to pay for it to be done wrong.

Around here, a standard length Laminated Beam is around $200, and after it's delivered or you pick it up, you cut it to length. I always cut them myself when I use them, which isn't often.

Eddie

 

[hayden]

Hi Eddie,

In principal I agree with you completely and often take exactly the position you describe. Right now I have two options. a) build out the posts and keep moving, or b) re-order the beams and essentially shut down for 1-2 weeks which is the time it will take to get them replaced. Given those options, I'm going to keep moving ahead. Although not the original plan, fattening the posts will be structurally equivalent and yield almost zero compromise in appearance (and it's an unfinished garage anyways). I neglected to mention that there is an option C which might well be the best, and that's to simply add angle brackets where the post and beam meet. The guy doing the engineering is going to evaluate both to see how they compare. If we used brackets there would be no appearance impact.

Anyway, to me, structural integrity is non-negotiable, the appearance is negotiable, and a week or two matters. If we can get structural integrity with a slight change to the appearance and not shut down for a week, then that's what I'll pick. I should know more in the next day or two and keep you posted

By the way, some might wonder why things would "essentially shut down". It's because the next step is the deck over the beams, and if the beams are being replaced that they obviously can't build the deck on top of them. They've pretty much already done everything else they can at this point other than one more course of sheething.

Oh, and don't worry, I won't pay for whatever it takes to fix this.

 

[hayden]

OK, here's where things are at the end of the week.

First, the short beams. It was all much ado about nothing. They need 1 3/4" of post on each end to meet the structural objective. We're got 2 3/4 on each end, so they are fine the way they are, no need to the fatten posts or anything. Dodged that bullet!

The rest of the week the crew got all the floor joists hung and about 1/3 of the deck installed. We used the tractor and forks to lift the deck material up to the second floor. The loader can only lift to about 10' and the deck is 12', but the gang was able to lean over a pull up the sheets. It beat the heck out of humping them up a ladder!

I don't have pictures of loading the deck material, but here are some shots of the inside. It's going to be a great work space.

 

[hayden]

A little later I climbed up on the deck to check out the view. Not bad, and a whole new perspective from what I've been looking at for the past 48 years.

 

[bones1]

Hayden that building is incredible, so well built. I really like the way the beams are set and how the 2nd floor joists attach to them.This is how I will build next time.

 

[Ridgewalker]

Great project Hayden, keep those cards and letters coming! I enjoy reading about your progress.

 

[hayden]

Thanks guys. It will be a few days before I can post more pictures, but at this point the deck is finished, the walls are all sheathed, and the ridge pole is up. The next major milestone will be a complete roofing system.

Stay tuned