Monday, June 6, 2011

Just Me's Loft

I took some pictures of this setup with Just Me's camera because I forgot my own and she was supposed to send them to me and hasn't so.... Here is my feeble attempt to show what went on last Saturday. Nick, Bob and myself went over to Julianne's (Just Me) place about 8:30 Saturday morning to help her setup the first part of her loft. She had taken 8' 2x6 planks and sandwiched OSB board between two of the planks to make beams to support the Z Purlin. She had made a total of 6 beams this way. What we did was to lift doubled Z Purlins up to the top of the beams which were not yet secured to the walls. That meant two people carrying  the 19 foot long doubled Z Purlins up 6 foot ladders and the other two people on the ground holding the beams so that they could be leaned out some so the Purlins could be placed in the notches Nick had cut in the top of each beam. Then the beams were forced back up against the walls and secured to the walls. I think the width will come out to about 12 or 14 feet, but I'm not sure which. Julianne's next step will be to cut 2x6 wooden planks to the proper length to fit in the cradles made by the bottoms of the purlins and then cover the top with 3/4 inch plywood which will be the floor. I think this will eventually become a living area, but will be used for storage until then. Should be plenty stout for both. Between cutting the purlins to the correct lengths, doubling them and screwing them together to make one unit out of each set, notching the top of the beams and the rest of the work it was around 3:30 or 4:00 Saturday afternoon when we finished. For lunch Julianne provided turkey breast sandwiches with all the trimmings and cold drinks for then and breaks through out the day. She has a fully functional restroom under it (With septic system and catchment) and plans to add a fully functional kitchen under the other side. She is on grid so powering appliances and so on won't be a problem. The finished loft will either be about 19' x 12' or 19' x 14'. There were a total of 4 doubled purlins to be put up because the center beams had a set on each side where the other two beams only had one set on them.

For those who don't know Z Purlins are made out of about 16 gauge steel and just one 19 foot long is pretty heavy and doubled they were a hand full to say the least.

8 comments:

  1. You always forget your camera! Well am happy you went to help..we all need some help from time to time.

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  2. Yeah I know I always forget it. I guess I need to have it surgically attached to me.

    I'd go help you to if I could get there in the falcon. Maybe if I ever get the PU registered where I can drive it instead.

    Just Me just sent me the pictures, but they were in a zip file and I couldn't open them.

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  3. Got the photos from Julianne and the Blogger server keeps rejecting them when I try to upload them. I've tried resizing them twice and still have the problem. Not sure what the problem is???

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  4. change the format from whatever they are to jpg or gift and try it again..

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  5. I am extremely grateful for the help from these three friends!!!! It really took 4 people working together to get as much work done as we managed to accomplish on Saturday.

    I sent the photos Saturday night - to the wrong e-mail address - DOH!!! When the message finally bounced back to me as undeliverable on Monday afternoon, I sent them again - all zipped into one nicely compressed file. Then, by request, I re-sent them in their original JPG format. David's done a fantastic job with the drawing!

    He's right about lifting the weight of those doubled or nested purlins. I've got sore muscles in places in my back and shoulders where I'd forgotten that I have muscles.

    With all this in place, I need only hang rafters and screw on the decking before I can finally move the last of my things from my city apartment and live full-time at the ranch. Interior finishing will be at a more leisurely pace.

    Thanks again guys!!!

    JustMe

    P.S. I've logged in with my Google Account about 6 times now and the preview keeps showing me as anonymous.

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  6. You can do anything with a little help from friends. Yay on you being able to move to your place full time, JustMe. I'll be out there next week, but I'll be starting from scratch.

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  7. Ricky the format was JPG. I don't know what the problem was. Any time I've ran in to that before it was because of size. (Not this time)

    Just Me, I know what you mean about sore. I still haven't recovered. On top of that I felt like crap all day today and the heat sure didn't help any either.

    jicky, I think you said you will have some help for a while. That will sure beat no help.

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  8. HACHACHA its a hottie out there

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