10/15/2019
Most of the beams that will hold up the garage floor are in. The access door to The Grotto has been cut, as has the hole for the garage drains. The counterforts were notched to carry the main garage beam.
Doug Miller, our contractor, took this nice overview! You can see the large gray beams. These are all different sizes of W12 steel beam. These are Wide flange with 12” tall web. The beam that runs across the counterforts is W12x26 which means it weighs 26 pounds per foot. Since its about 31’ long, that means it weighs about 800 lbs. The beam in the center of the 2 car garage door is a w12x35 and is about 19 feet long for a weight of about 660 poiunds. The structural engineer specified only as much beam as was needed at each location.
Martin didn’t think about an overview, he was doing close ups. Here’s the single car door on the north of the garage. You can see the steel angle ledger on the north wall. It’s 4”x4 3/8” and is held up by 1/2” anchor bolts every 4’.
Here’s the middle of the garage. The light near the bottom of the east wall is the hole for the drains. You can see it in the photo to the left as well.
Here’s the 5/8” anchor bolts that all the beams, except the W12x35, are held up on their wall ends with. The big one has 3/4” anchor bolts.
The door into The Grotto has been cut thru the reinforced concrete wall.
Standing inside The Grotto, looking at the piece of the mountain that will be exposed in it. That’s why the room is called The Grotto.
A close up of the pink granite outcropping. We can’t wait to see it after all the dirt has been washed off! It’s got large flecks of quartz and mica in the pink matrix.
The framers are responsible for making sure that the walls go exactly where the Architect wants them. Right here, the concrete was just a bit out of position, so the framers had to drill and set new bolts in.
Rather than bring a crane up for the garage steel, the excavator does double duty.
The first firewood has been split! This will be very dry before it’s used, since it will be months before the house is done.