Loft Conversion - Steely Done

With the steel now lifted into the loft it was time to start the job of fitting the beams in place at each side of the building.

These are the steel shoes which are designed to act as a support bracket for the steel beams and to stop them twisting or rolling over onto their side.  They were manufactured by Gilchrist Steels of Glasgow on the same order as the steel beams.

The steel shoes were bolted into the brick party wall using M12 threaded rod and bolts rather than expansive rawlbolts.  The threaded rod was fixed in place using anchorset and left overnight to cure, the next day the shoes were bolted onto the road and tightened up.  I was surprised at just how secure the anchorset was, with absolutely no movement in the rod as i tightened the bolts.

I slid the steel beams into place myself and whilst it was a heavy manual job it was something which was fairly straightforward.  Once the beams were positioned, levelled and lined up they were bolted together at the spliced joint using the plates and M20 bolts specified by the structural engineer.

Once both steel beams were fitted in place, each side of the web of the beams had to be filled with 8"x2" timbers which had to be bolted through the web at staggered intervals.  These timbers will provide a fixing for the C24 structural joists which will be fitted under the steel beams and hung using 400mm steel joist hangers.

and here's the steel beams with timber infill finally fitted in place.  Phew!