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.