…a 500 pound I beam that is.
I got a beam sized by an engineer to help take the bounce out of my first level floor. The beam is 22′ long and weighs about 500 LBS. The beam needs to be placed in a basement, to which I have relatively easy access from a sub-grade terrace.
The beam is going to sit on top of two steel columns and get some LVL bolted to either side, to which I will add joist hangers onto which will seat the existing 2x8s.
My question is – short of begging all my neighbors, is there any easier way to raise up the beam? I
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Purchase several case of appropriate adult beverages, ice well and display, announce that consumption of the aforementioned beverages will commence immediately after the placing and securing of the beam in question.
A designated guard for the beverages is suggested.
Invite spouses and significant others -- they will undoubtedly bring food.
At least you won't have to beg!
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. My next door neighbor is a college professor. He has got the names of three students that are football players, each looking to pick up occasional summer work. A cold case of Harp and a solid meal ought to suffice.Still, I was hoping there might be a more elegant and less strenuous way to hoist that beam up. I hate the thought of trying to finesse 500 LBS of steel into place without the aid of something other than friends, family and a couple of hungry college kids.
pino,
Genie lift is what you need. A pair of these will make your life easy and safe. Rental yard usually has them.http://www.genielift.com/ml-series/ml-1-3.aspKK
KK and Mike - now thats what I am talking about. I'll check with the local rental places for availability. Thanks1
I don't see an 'easy' way...not with a floor overhead. That leaves out come-alongs.
Or spending money renting some kind of equipment.
Looks like strong backs and ladders.
Is this beam something that can be simply raised into place, or does it have to be shoved through some kind of opening and rest on an existing support on each end?
If the former, I'd build cribbing and raise the beam a little at a time with the help of a couple of floor jacks or bottle jacks. One guy with a few sawhorses and a lot of cribbing could do the job - just takes time. Two or three people would make it even easier - you could skip the jacks. Principles of fulcrums and levers. You can make fine adjustments with the jacks to put your columns in place on the ends.
If the latter - best bet is to bribe half a dozen people with beer 'n BBQ to help you out. I placed both beams in my basement, W10x22 by 32' long (700 pounds each) with six guys, some lifting straps, and some creative shuffling and maneuvering. One reasonably big dude can pick up one end of a 500 pound beam so someone could shove cribbing under it.
It will be raised in place. I am letting in (or up-setting) this beam into the existing 2 x 8 joists. Once raised up near the joists I am going to have to attached the LVLs and the joist hangers. Working around the temporary bracing I'll have to install on the cut joists makes for a lot less maneuverability, so I was hoping to avoid cribbing and jacks, although that would certainly work.I was just kind of wondering if there was some kind of hoist available that could do the job along with a few strong backs. I'll try the local rental places to see what they have, otherwise the jacks and cribbing will be the way to go.
get about 12 inflatable matresses and a big air pump. No problem!
rent a material lift (or two, depending on their load rating). The one's I have used are kinda' like drywall lifts, in that they are hand cranked. I have used them on a few occasions to lift steel beams. They work great. They also break down into smaller components, so they are easy to get into tight spaces.
"... to which I have relatively easy access from a sub-grade terrace."
Can you get a small piece of equipment in there (skidsteer, tractor, forklift) to lift it up?
Otherwise, I'm guessing lots of cribbing???
I really have no idea.
Ask Father Bob to pray (or has he already left?).
When are you doing this?
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Nope, can't get anything that heavy down in. The sub grade exposure is a terrace with steps only from the grade above. I had thought about a small Bobcat when I needed to break up the old concrete floor and dig out the clay, but it would have required a crane to lift it down 5' into the hole.The Genie lift idea looks like the way to go. Two of those ought to do it.I won't order the beam until Monday so this will go up next week end or the weekend after.
Is that a steel beam? If so, have the company that's supplying it also deliver it and raise it. They do that stuff all the time and will get it over with.
There are all sorts of methods to do it. Lift poles with steps, cribbing and jacks, gin poles and cable or strap come-alongs. All are OK and do this sort of thing well.
I recommend you either get the manpower and use BFI, brute force and ignorance, or get a little less help and combine it with the mechanical aids. The key advantage to breaking down and getting some help is safety. Having a a few extra pairs of hands can save the day. At the very least you have someone to call the flying squad to drag you out from under your beam.
I have seen carpenters who have done this sort of thing dozens of times and who were perfectly capable of doing this sort of thing by themselves take the trouble to get extra manpower. Even if they are not needed. They come in mighty handy if, when if you do it enough times, things go south.
I put in several of these beams in my projects. They were "let-in" to existing floor joists. But I was digging a basement so we had a bobcat do it (with pallets on a set of pallet forks). I would say lift it with some guys on each end, one cribbing size at a time (we used 8" cinder blocks stacked 2x2 to do my heaviest beam - 1200 lbs).
How big is your beam? W12x15 or ...?
A few other things though (you may have already thought about this stuff). Have the steel yard drill the web, 16" oc staggered up and down, two holes on top of each other at the ends. And drill the top flange for drywall screw holes. Use 3/4" ply on the top of the beam, glued to the beam with PL400. Then run a bead of PL400 along the top beam right before you get it set to the underside of the existing subfloor.
Do some layout before hand and make sure the bolts you are using to attach the LVL pack out don't interfere directly with the joists or joist hangers and have the yard drill the steel to the specifications you get from doing some layout. What size is this beam? I don't see any reason to spend money on LVL, why not use SPF? Bolted through the web 16" oc will provide adequate load carrying capacity.
If the beam is over 16' and you are using spf (I assume LVL is cut to whatever length you want), have the yard drill two bolt holes in the web, unstaggered (one on top, one on bottom), about 3" on either side of the spf break.
Also I don't see like joist hangers in this situation. I'll tell you why. You are going to be raising that beam up into a pocket right? So you snap a line on the underside of the joists which is +1/8" on the width of the beam. But you don't cut every joists nice and straight, so at one end you got one that is 1/16" too long and the other end one on the other side is 1/8" too long. And your beam happens to not exactly be straight. Good luck getting that in when you got 500 lbs 7' off the floor.
So what I did was cut the pocket about a 1/2" bigger than the beam and then once lifted up, I nailed blocking to the wood in the web of the beam and then nailed through the ends of the joist into this blocking. then I did the next block down the line and shot another round of nails through the previous joist back into this blocking. So I had essentially toe nailed the end of the joists with 10 or so nails into this blocking. It's rocked up solid and a lot easier than fooling with joists hangers. Besides hand nailing joists hangers into dry lumber that has been cut slightly short only results in blowing out the end of the joists.
Let me know if this doesn't make sense, I can take some pictures for you of what I've got here.
MERC
I think I understand what you are saying, but some pics would be nice. Your solution seems to have an added benefit for me. Given the age of my house (90+) the joists are true 2 x 8s. My understanding is that I would have to order joist hangers from Simpson as these would not be a standard item. Don't know if they would be more expensive or not, but still I like your idea.No rush on the pics, I got side tracked this weekend doing some work for my father-in-law so I won't even pour the piers for my steel columns until next weekend. Setting this beam is a few weeks off yet.
I put in a beam a couple months ago. It wasn't as heavy as yours but still wasn't light. I could pick up one end of it but not the whole thing.
That lift thing that someone had a link to will not work. The tower will hit the ceiling long before you get the beam any where near where you want it.
Even if you have lots of people helping you lift it you will still need to use a jack to get it into the finial resting place. You will be lifting more then the beam its self. You will be lifting the joists that you are wanting to support just a fraction or two as well.
By useing two ladders of different hights as cribbing I worked the beam into place. I started by putting one end of the beam on the short ladder you see in the first picture. (photo not avalable of this step) Then just kept going back and forth from one end to the other lifting it up higher each time.
Here are a few pictures of how I did it.
DaneI will always be a beginner as I am always learning.
Thanks for the pics. i am going to taker a look at a lift later in the week at the local rental place. I explained what I needed to do and they claim to have something that will work. If not, cribbing is my fall back position.
Another way is to take 4 2bys and mount them on each side of the beam with 2 on each end. You will have to put them up after the beam is have been moved into the space.With them in place the beam can only move up and down. And make it close enough that the beam can flop over.Then drill holes across them about 6-12" and have some rods that can go into the holes.Then you can work one end up 6-12" then them put in a pin. Then do the same on the other end and repeat.
I'd go with Bill's method, only without the holes and pins. Set the vertical two by's with the 2" sides against the beam, and just use two C-clamps to hold an 18" piece of 2x4 to them under the beam. Saves the drilling, lets you put the support anywhere along the vertical two by's, and they're un-drilled and usable for something else afterward.
If you put together two of these rigs on each end, you can use one as a fulcrum while you lever up and stick a block under the other. Then move the fulcrum one up to support the beam and do it again using the other as the fulcrum.
500 lbs, 250 for each end, isn't all that much weight. A bottle jack is way more than you need, and will go very slowly. BTW, that picture of the bottle jack on top of a ladder is kinda scary. You can easily create way too much force that way, and collapse the ladder.
-- J.S.
Pino,
one slightly weak older person like myself is capable of such work without undue strain. The trick is balance and leverage..
roll it into place on a set of pipes. easy enough to do.. once in approximate location lever up one end and set that on blocks then slide the same thickness block along it's legnth untill the other end is at the same height. now place another block and lever up one end onto the new higher block. repeat at the oppsosite end by stacking and leverage it can rise into place inside an hour (and that's working at a steady pace with several breaks)...
cut beam into several lengths with each joint falling on a jack post
the joints are drilled for 3 bolts each piece using splice plates
6x6 beam x12 ' approx 180#
done this a number of times especially on renos even in one case using the home owner who was wearing a dress , my partner at the time did not show up & he was her boyfriend
have a couple extra jack posts to help in placement
did one of these beam placements only last week