It all started in early December when the steel detailer sent me the first takeoff of the steel from the structural plans. We have quite a bit of structural steel in the plan and I contracted with Custom Steel Fabricators Inc. to fabricate the beams and columns.
I went to work to determine the actual dimensions of all the columns, beams and various other pieces of steel. There were 25 in all! The first task was to determine the elevation of all the concrete. In particular I needed the points where the steel connects to the concrete. I chose a point on the front concrete wall as the benchmark and setup the laser to broadcast a horizontal level line from that point. Temporary wood columns made out of 2×4’s were erected at each point so I could measure the distance from the concrete to the laser mark on the column.
It wasn’t the toughest task but I was nervous about getting the measurements right so I went back on three different days and repeated the process to make sure I got the same numbers. Once I felt confident that the spreadsheet of measurements was correct it was time to draw out the steel in a Sketchup model. The model became highly detailed, including bolt holes for connecting the pieces together and coping on the ends to account for any angles. This was just what I needed to feel confident that the measurements, angles and bolts where correct. I also drew most of the wood framing members but left them out in the picture below to show the steel.
With the model in hand I was able to accurately (I hoped) measure each piece of steel and validate it against what the steel detailer sent me. We went back on forth at least 10 times. It seemed that the detailer didn’t believe/trust my measurements but I stuck to my model and eventually beat him into submission.
The fabricators got right to work once the details were approved and a couple of weeks later the first pieces were delivered. More on that in the framing posts.