steel on site

Structural steel started arriving on site today. The local steel fabricator, who has drilled and welded the steel members according to our prefabricator's digital fabrication drawings, delivered about a third of the steel this morning (the rest should follow on Monday). Our steel erector offloaded the steel columns with a huge crane. Ecosteel's Sam Cubis flew in from Utah to check on the delivery.

The large pieces of steel are sitting on wood sleepers to keep them off the ground. The smaller pieces are locked away in a storage container. On Monday, we're hoping the erector will start setting the columns in place, at which point we'll find out if the anchor bolts are where they ought to be.

Each piece of steel is marked with a unique identification code, which is keyed to the prefabricator's erection drawings. There are going to be hundreds of steel members, ranging in size from beams over twenty feet long to small angle brackets. The drawings help make sure each piece ends up in the right spot.

The steel comes prefinished in a gray oxide primer paint. We intend to leave the steel like this on the interior, and haven't yet decided how to finish it on the exterior. We need to see how the other materials look together before we decide whether to paint the outdoor pieces of structural steel. We're also curious to see how the bolts and nuts that hold the steel structure together look when left exposed.

It's been a great way to celebrate our 16th anniversary!