The first floor of our home has a 19' wide by 6 ' deep balcony off the den and laundry/mudroom. Originally planned to have pilings supporting it, the city was concerned about controlling drainage that far down the slope and the excavator was concerned about how to move equipment down there. So instead of pilings for support, we are cantilevering both the first and second floor large decks. Honestly, it's a much more pleasing design. It's also a lot more steel, problem solving and more headaches for our builder, Brian. That's okay, he can take it!
On Monday, August 14th my brother came out from Ridgefield to watch the fun. Honestly I thought it would take longer than it did to place three very large I-beams, one on the east foundation wall, the center one resting on the north foundation wall and the big wood beam in the center of the house, and the third one resting on a sort of foundation pony wall perpendicular to the north foundation wall and running half way towards the front of the house. This last beam also rests on the big wood beam.
Placing the beams is precarious enough with out having to joist walk at the same time. These guys took it in stride. Did I mention that each of the beams was different? Two have fins welded to the bottom with bolt holes so the beams could be secured to the foundation, but the fins were different sizes. All three beams have bolts sticking up from the top, part of the hold downs to secure the house to the foundation, but they were all in different locations. The beams also all had flanges at the north end, specifically designed to hold large wood beams that would be the north edge of the deck.
All three beams placed, no one injured, I could exhale. For a while anyway, because in two weeks the crew will deliver three more I-beams to be installed on the second floor.
