Steel beam in attic!

[jboujaoude]

Gentlemen/Ladies,

Could someone please tell me what "da..." this steel beam doing in the attic? It has steel cables wrapped around its mid-span and running to the exterior walls but not atttached to anything!


Is it possible that this beam was used as a hoist when the building was erected in 1948?

Thanks,

John

[Bruce A. King]

I saw something similar on a friends house, the original owner also owned a lumber yard so he had a massive network of timbers in the attic laying across the ceiling joists with huge bolts holding 5x10 braces to the main 12x12 timber and 3/4 threaded rods going down all the way to the foundation. A massive storm might take the roof off but the upper floor would not be going anywhere.

I think someone had that in mind for the steel beam but forgot to plan for and install the connections to the foundation. Or, maybe it was a modular house and they stored the beam in the attic, but it looks small for a single hoist beam.

[William J. Decker]

Part of the Christmas tree? Just stuffed away in the attic and forgotten.

I inspected a house that had a HUGE, plastic Santa (7' tall) in the attic. Seems that the owner (3 owners ago) used it for a display, and left it. The next 2 owners never went in the attic.

Once, while crawling an attic, I found an 1862 Civil War Cavalry Sword. I left it there, and asked the buyer if I could do a Pre-closing walk throgh. Then, during the walk through I "found" the sword and asked if I could buy it (after the closing). He gave it to me.

Vintage sword (I collect swords), and assessed at $10,570. I kept it for my collection.

So, I would guess, to the original question, that this is a "vintage" steel beam.

Might be worth something

[bdoles2]

Originally Posted by jboujaoude

Gentlemen/Ladies,

Could someone please tell me what "da..." this steel beam doing in the attic? It has steel cables wrapped around its mid-span and running to the exterior walls but not atttached to anything!


Is it possible that this beam was used as a hoist when the building was erected in 1948?

Thanks,

John

Looks as though it's "floating" and not really resting on the ceiling joists. What is attached to the bottom side, towards the front end of the beam?

[jboujaoude]

Thank you all....I went with Bruce's opinion in the report. The house endured a 80+ mph wind last year and still standing!

The beam's bottom flange is anchored to joists but I easily rotated the top flange.....

John

[Stephen D. Schroetke]

It's for festivus.

[cjustason]

Maybe the original owner wanted to do engine swaps while watching NACHITV

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

They used to shoe elephants and used that to raise them off the floor??

[mthomas2]

There is an elephant is this room, for sure.