After finishing our first floor walls, we moved on to building the second floor! We started by prepping and installing the LVL beams that span between the columns in the middle of the house. The LVL beams are 4-ply and 2-ply which means each beam is actually 2 or 4 1-3/4″ LVL’s that are screwed or nailed together. Check out our YouTube video below that shows how we screwed together and prepped the large 24″ 4-ply LVL beam that will span over our open concept living / dining / kitchen area!
Once we had the LVL beams installed we were able to continue building the second floor by installing our wood I-joists, rim boards, and blocking similar to the installation of our first subfloor.
Installing the wood I-joists moved quickly since we had the hangers already installed on the beams and only had to drop the joists in place and nail them in. As we continued installing the joists across the second floor, we also began placing the OSB subfloor to give us a platform to stand on as we continued to work. Check out how to glue and nail down OSB subfloor in this video!
Since many of the steps were the same or similar to the first floor, building the second floor moved much faster! Before long we had the second floor done and began working on the framing the second floor walls. Subscribe to the blog below or check out our YouTube channel to see how the second floor framing goes!
Kendra Ann 