Creating the First Floor

The Sill
After Rob's withdrawal period from the Bobcat (one evening!), he shifted gears and placed two layers of sill foam on top of the concrete walls, and then placed the wood for the sill (pressure-treated 2'x8') on top. The two layers of sill foam is supposed to help with keeping the layers airtight, since the top of the concrete was not completely flat.

The I-Joists and LVLs
When I ordered 16" x 30 foot long I-joists and LVLs, I knew we were ordering engineered lumber, which was FSC-certified (from sustainable logging) and 'green' in the sense that smaller pieces of wood are adhered together, so that large trees do not have to be harvested to create the beams. What I did not realize, however, is just how big and heavy these beams were going to be, and how difficult they would be to get up onto our 9 foot concrete walls. The next task was figuring out how to get the beams on top of the walls. Luckily, we found a helper - Dale - who helped Rob get the beams up - through a strategy of lifting them first onto the scaffold and then the rest of the way up.

These are the I-joists, so called because of their shape like an "I"

Rob and Dale working through the rain

The more solid looking beams in the middle are the LVL's, which are even stronger and heavier than the I-joists - somehow Rob got these into place on his own

View from the top

Rob attached the 30' LVL's to the header (two LVL's together above a door or window) using joist hangers

The car's first trip into the workshop

  

The Blockers
The next insane task was securing the I-joists and LVL's in place using blockers, which are smaller pieces of I-joists that go in between each of the beams. The engineer's design had three rows of blockers, which meant a lot of them! Thank goodness, our awesome cousin Lance came back to help put in the blockers. Rob and Lance got all the blockers in place this weekend, which was an amazing accomplishment. 

The Rimboard and the Floor
After the blockers were in place, Rob nailed on the remaining rim board to further secure the beams above the walls, and then he and Lance put the plywood on top to make the floor (today!). A shout out of thanks to Don as well for helping lift all the plywood onto the rafters last weekend.

This is the rim board being nailed in place