Installing the Beam

Here's what our attic looked like before.

As you can see, we weren't using it for much. The access point to the attic was an opening cut through the plywood in the garage. Not that convenient, but better than the small panel that is in the closet of our bedroom.

In order to get the 18-foot LVL beam into the attic from the garage, we had to open the side window and slide each piece of the beam through it and up into the attic. Maura helped me get it up there.

Yeah, that beam's pretty long.

Beam moved up and truss cross-members removed.

Two pieces of beam nailed together.

Did I mention that I convinced Maura to let me try installing the beam, myself? I figured that if I couldn't do it, I would have to hire somebody. She probably figured that's what I would end up doing. Now, I just had to figure out how I was going to get that monster beam lifted up into place and installed plumb and level all by myself. It's not a lot of fun working in a cold, dusty, attic either.

My plan involved some of the biggest screw eyes I could find, a couple of ratchet straps, scrap pieces of wood, eight cinder blocks, two jack posts, and a bunch of determination. I screwed the a couple of screw eyes into opposite sides of the existing ridge beam above the LVL beam. I wrapped the ratchet straps around each end of the beam and hooked them into the screw  eyes. This was to steady the beam while I carefully lifted one end enough to slide some wood underneath it. Once I did that, I tightened the ratchet strap and repeated the process at the other end.

Ratchet straps attached with scrap wood under each end of the beam.

I repeated the above steps, lifting a little, ratcheting a little, and slipping more pieces of wood under the beam. This was a little tedious, and involved a lot of crawling back and forth. I had to check to make sure that this bad boy was safely supported throughout the process. Next came the cinder blocks.

One cinder block laid horizontally at each end.

One cinder block laid vertically at each end.

Stacking cinder blocks.

Stacking cinder blocks higher.

Here's where the jack posts come in.

Back to the better camera.

Once I got the jack posts up, I was able to crank them up so that the beam was solidly supported. That's when I removed the ratchet straps. Then it was time to install the permanent supports at both ends of the beam.

Cutout in living room wall and ceiling showing the post supporting the LVL beam.

Not-so-great shot of the post over the hallway holding up the other end.

I must admit, I was feeling pretty good about getting that beam installed by myself. I figured that if I could do that, the rest of the reno shouldn't be that bad, right?