Big beam - my eye!

Today Mike and I shifted a big beam. It had to be removed to make an opening for the new staircase. Here it is where it started:



What we used was the modern equivalent of a block and tackle: a chain hoist. It made the work a lot easier than trying to lift the beam (I think it weighed close to a quarter of a ton - old oak, about 20cm by 30cm, and more than 4 metres long).



Here it's being lifted out after being cut to length. Then we moved the hoist - a couple of times in fact - ready to put it back in the fireplace:



It will support the new hearth - to be cast in concrete over and around it - and make it possible to have a fire in the big fireplace for the first time in a century or so.



It had to be notched at both ends and over the concrete wall, to make it possible to have a sufficient depth of concrete on top of it. Too thin and it will crack. We might get that done by the end of the week.

The next job is fixing the shuttering for the concrete, with reinforcing bars .....