The metalwork is in.

Question: How do you lift a quarter of a ton of steel seven feet up onto the wall?  What's more how do you get a 120kg steel beam twelve feet up and located in the hole in the house, bolted to a post at the other, and make sure it is both straight and level.

Answer:  You hire a Genie SL15 Super Lift with a boom.  it's a great piece of kit (about £3500 worth of great!) that makes the lifting part comparatively easy.  It is a hand-operated winch with extending rail that will take the load to 15 feet.  The hard part is manoeuvring it when it is hanging.  Quarter of a ton of steel, hung from some webbing, seven feet up, is not the easiest thing to place.  However, once the lintel was settled and the post was lightly attached - allowing plenty of adjustment - the ridge beam caused a few problems of its own.

I needed to be in three places at once: operating the lift, locating the bolts into the post, and pushing the end into the hole in the house wall - good job I have long arms and a scaffold tower.

I have to say that in all the moving and locating of the steel the most useful tool I have had has been my car trolley jack.  It will happily lift 2 tons and take the strain of the steelwork.  I used it on the ground to move it initially; then it was priceless up on the scaffold to lift the beam just a few mm to allow it to be slid into the wall.  I don't think I could have managed without it. 


The base of the lintel has had two coats of zinc oxide primer and will have a couple of coats of black gloss to protect it.  It is the only part of the steelwork that will see the light of day.  The ridge beam will be enclosed in the roof timbers, the top and sides of the lintel will be built on and the post will be enclosed in some way.

I'm not sure how to do the post yet.  It is on the inner leaf of the wall, so it would be perfectly possible to install a single window outside it, stretching from one side of the building to the other, however it may be better to build a 30cm wide pillar around the post to encase it and have two smaller, triangular windows instead.

Now the steel is in, the next job will be to attach the wall plates.  The one on the driveway side has been there for a while and is just awaiting the straps being drilled and screwed to the walls to hold it in place.


On the other side the 4" x 2" timber wall plate will be fixed by some 4" sleeve anchors drilled directly through the timber and tightened into the wall.  It is important that I get the wall plate absolutely level as the fall of the box gully depends on the roof being level.  Once this is on I can start cutting rafters and will have a fighting chance of having a roof on by Christmas.

It's a Steel

As the summer holiday ends and term starts there are only a couple of days' block laying left to do before I need to install the structural steelwork,

The combination of the architect's plans and the structural engineer's specifications are sufficient to obtain quotes from steel suppliers around Norwich. As this is an area in which I have no experience I could easily be taken for a ride in terms of price.  I mean, how much is a 6 metre steel lintel?  So I compiled a precis of the specifications and sent it by email to 4 companies to see how close their quotes would be.

Having spoken to one company I was reassured that the quote would be for an approximate length, but they would obviously require accurate measurements for the production.

Three pieces are required:  A lintel that runs almost the entire width of the extension above both the bifold doors and the kitchen window; a ridge beam that comes out from the house to the centre of the back wall, supported by the third piece, a 1.5m post.  All need drilling, welding plates attached and painting - so it's a bit more than just supplying three bits of metal!

I measured both pieces umpteen times before I committed to buy - knowing I can't easily change it once it is welded.  I got 3 quotes and Standley Steel of Wymondham were not only the most competitive, but were genuinely helpful people.

The main lintel over window and doors is 6m long and weighs around 250kg - a quarter of a ton.  it will need lifting 2.1m to put it in place.  The ridge beam, 4.5m long and only about 110kg needs to go another 1.2m above that.  I have a hand-operated crane on order for half term.  

Moving the lintel into the right position for the crane required some ingenuity, planks and rollers, and a car trolley jack.

I cut the hole in the back wall of the house for the ridge beam to sit in and checked it is the right size and depth.


So with the walls ready, the slab floor painted with two coats of bitumen damp proofing, the steel in place and the crane coming on Monday, all we can do now is go to Sheffield to see Ali for the weekend!