My first framing job in 1992 was building 4 story hillside houses in Brisbane CA overlooking Candlestick Park. The boss was using a 4 wheel Gradall with a hydraulic boom to lift a 30 foot I-beam above the frame to lower it down a pocket in the middle of the frame and set it as a center post. The boom was fully extended dangling the steel like a needle on a thread when it started to tip and begin its slow motion tumble down the hill. Steel and tractor headed a hundred feet bouncing downhill. Everybody scrambled. I was 3 feet away uphill. The fat kid carpenter working down below ran faster than anybody ever seen and just barely got away. Nobody hurt.
In Marina Del Rey last week, almost 20 years to the day, we were lifting a 22 foot, 8x8 inch I-beam into a tight pocket I had cut into the floor joists above (our ceiling) to replace a bearing wall between the kitchen and living room. There will be continuous steel posts at each end of the beams from the 3rd to the 6th (top) floor. A hoist is put on the roof centered on the beams and a cable is dropped through a hole down to each unit to lift the beam starting with the 3rd then up to the 6th. My unit is the 5th floor. The beam is lifted with a nylon fabric strap hooked to the cable.
Thursday early morning I got there and the steel guys had lifted the beam about 8 feet up and, then, my job is to be ready to make any fine tune cuts to make sure the beam has a unobstructed path up to the floor above. It was clear above (I did a good job!) but the steel guy wanted me to enlarge the floor opening at one end to make it easier to weld the steel post to the beam below that had been installed a day earlier. I blew up at him, offended, because the day before he looked at the opening and said it was OK. “Now you want me to get under a hanging load (1500 lbs ±) to cut out a few more inches?†I refused to do it. A 24 year old, Julian, grabbed my saw and did it. He’s one of the bosses actually. There were a couple of other bosses there who had no comment to my refusal. It seems nobody talks back to a big guy barking.
15 minutes later the beam was being hoisted the last couple of feet into the opening. There was a steel worker at each end twisting and guiding the monster and I stood 2 feet off to the side watching. Pop, Pop, POP, POP, POPPP the strap strained and broke and the beam fell to the concrete floor as fast as an apple. The building shook and shouts came from all over the jobsite. Nobody was hurt.
I saw Julian the next morning and asked him how well he slept. He said he couldn’t. He didn’t tell his family it was so frightening. They had been working under beams like this for 2 months. I told the top boss to have temporary posts ready to support the load before anybody goes under. It takes 5 minutes and $30 of lumber to make it safe. He agreed.
In Marina Del Rey last week, almost 20 years to the day, we were lifting a 22 foot, 8x8 inch I-beam into a tight pocket I had cut into the floor joists above (our ceiling) to replace a bearing wall between the kitchen and living room. There will be continuous steel posts at each end of the beams from the 3rd to the 6th (top) floor. A hoist is put on the roof centered on the beams and a cable is dropped through a hole down to each unit to lift the beam starting with the 3rd then up to the 6th. My unit is the 5th floor. The beam is lifted with a nylon fabric strap hooked to the cable.
Thursday early morning I got there and the steel guys had lifted the beam about 8 feet up and, then, my job is to be ready to make any fine tune cuts to make sure the beam has a unobstructed path up to the floor above. It was clear above (I did a good job!) but the steel guy wanted me to enlarge the floor opening at one end to make it easier to weld the steel post to the beam below that had been installed a day earlier. I blew up at him, offended, because the day before he looked at the opening and said it was OK. “Now you want me to get under a hanging load (1500 lbs ±) to cut out a few more inches?†I refused to do it. A 24 year old, Julian, grabbed my saw and did it. He’s one of the bosses actually. There were a couple of other bosses there who had no comment to my refusal. It seems nobody talks back to a big guy barking.
15 minutes later the beam was being hoisted the last couple of feet into the opening. There was a steel worker at each end twisting and guiding the monster and I stood 2 feet off to the side watching. Pop, Pop, POP, POP, POPPP the strap strained and broke and the beam fell to the concrete floor as fast as an apple. The building shook and shouts came from all over the jobsite. Nobody was hurt.
I saw Julian the next morning and asked him how well he slept. He said he couldn’t. He didn’t tell his family it was so frightening. They had been working under beams like this for 2 months. I told the top boss to have temporary posts ready to support the load before anybody goes under. It takes 5 minutes and $30 of lumber to make it safe. He agreed.
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