The plan comes together

The second beam was installed today per the engineering letter. Here is the working diagram for the structural changes. Both beams are flush with the ceiling so we'll never know they're up there once drywall is installed. The main load bearing wall that came out was the one separating the kitchen and dining room. This was replaced with the LVL and flitch plate per the drawing. The trick was that the kitchen/dining wall ended in the middle of the room so something had to hold up the dead end. We didn't want a post in the middle of the room so this is where the steel i-beam came in. One end of the i-beam is supported by a column in a closet wall and the other is supported above the back door by an enlarged header and column.

Here are the beams working together. The posts are temporary as the two beams are set to be tied together tomorrow morning.

The steel i-beam is resting over the door and in the closet wall.

The i-beam on the left is 18 feet long and weights in at 900+ lbs. Next to it is the flitch place which now has the LVLs (wood next to the plate) on each side. The crew created makeshift rollers out of PVC pipe to roll the big i-beam around the side of the house and in the back door.