Steel I-beams
25 May 2006
The barn has walls! Some walls at least. The lower "basement"
level is completely framed and the room directly above it is almost
completely framed. There's even a second story window high enough
for Emily to test her "egg drop" project for school. We have
plenty of eggs for testing but only needed one, Emily's egg made the
drop unharmed. Maybe some day she'll be able to test it from the
third floor instead of just the second floor.
The main section of the barn is a large 24'x24' area with no posts in
the middle. With 10' high ceilings, it will make an excellent
work space with room for the tractor or any other large equipment I
need to drive through there. The only problem is the structural
requirements for such a large span. Since barns are officially
considered commercial buildings they must be rated to 100psf instead of
the 40psf of a typical house. Building codes don't care that I'll
never have that kind of weight upstairs on the coffee drying
deck. So I had to use three large I-beams and six steel posts to
support that section of the barn.
The I-beams are WF12x16 which means Wide Flange, 12 inches high, 16
pounds per foot. At 24'5" each I-beam is just over 390
pounds. That's light for a steel I-beam but still way too heavy to
move around casually. With a little grunting, I can pick up and
move one end of the beam at a time. Moving the entire beam at
once requires a crane.
The first challenge was getting all the steel from the local steel
supplier up to the farm. Not a problem with the help of my
neighbor Eli and his flatbed pickup with a hydraulic crane on it.
He loaded up those I-beams and steel posts as if it were nothing.
The next challenge was getting all the steel welded into place.
My step father is a professional welder (Ace Mobile Welding if you're
local and looking for a welder) and he was just the man for the
job. The only hitch is that he was only available on weekends
while Eli and his crane were only available on weekdays. So I
conned Eli into climbing up my rickety ladder and tack welding the
I-beams into place. Again, Eli got the job done as if it were
nothing. Even more amazing when you consider that Eli is
72. I hope I'm still able to climb ladders and weld steel when
I'm 72. I certainly owe Eli a few favors.
Once the I-beams were in place, Ace came by to finish the job. My
exact orders were "weld the snot out of it." That he did.
Those I-beams aren't going anywhere now. The welds look good
too. Of course, once the I-beams were done I found a couple other
welding jobs that also needed to be done. Having a professional
welder and all his equipment on the farm was an opportunity I couldn't
pass up. By the way, a good wire welder is on my wish-list of
farm equipment. In the mean time, I'm glad I have such good help.
Oh yeah, and my friend Matt helped some too. But that doesn't
mean we're even for the work I did on his roof. He still has to
help more. And if his roof leaks it's not my fault.
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