In this episode Ryel Kestano documents the completion of the cabin’s perimeter and middle beams, detailing the use of beam hangers, extra blocking for stair support, and the interconnection of all beams with vertical straps. He highlights the efficiency boost from having a helper, noting the work proceeds 3‑4 times faster with two people. Ryel discusses upcoming logistical challenges: an imminent 6‑inch snowstorm, a truck currently in the shop, and the need to haul roughly 50 pieces of 2x10 joists for the floor. He then measures and positions the first rim joist, explaining how he will assemble a 28‑foot length from one 14‑foot piece and two 7‑foot pieces to avoid cracks at beam joints. The episode ends with a pause due to forecasted snow, promising the next video will cover full floor construction.
Chapters
So that's all the perimeter beams on. Went pretty well. These beams are heavy. Oh my God, getting a workout in maneuvering these things around. But, uh, really sweet to see the first shape of the cabin. Now I can finally see the actual footprint, so that's cool. And now I've got the middle beams to get on, and then I can start on joists.
Cheers, fellas.
To the cabins and campfires.
Look out. Uh, got all the beams on except one more to put on.
So where are they going? One side will be on this middle beam and then put another one.
Oh my God, reach? Not quite.
Okay, you just get that last one right there, we'll be good. Cool. This is the last beam. That I need to get set up, and I'm using these beam hangers here to secure it to the outside. And I need to put an extra beam here because the stairs are going to be right on top of this point, and the plans call for a bit of extra beef underneath the weight of the stairs. So I'm using this old cutoff part of another beam to get the height just right, and then can pin these in. All right, so we got this whole structure now, uh, all connected. All the beams are connected at every corner to each other. Got a strap over there on those two beams. And then all the beams are now connected to these vertical straps. And then I got this other beam in for the stairs. So that's it, done with this stage. I had a friend of mine come up yesterday. It's amazing how much faster this work goes even with just 2 people. It's not twice as fast, but 3 or 4 times as fast. So keeping that in mind, might ask a person here or there to come up and give me a hand with some of this harder stuff, stuff that's harder to do by yourself anyway. We're about to get our first snowstorm of the year tomorrow, 6 inches or so, so that's going to be a whole thing. Yeah, I hope that I can keep working. My truck's also been in the shop, so that's another factor. Hopefully getting that back here, uh, today or tomorrow because the next step is going to be hauling up all the joist material. It's probably about 50 pieces of 2x10, uh, and yeah, and then I can start building the floor on top of the beams. Mostly I have my head wrapped around that whole process. There's a little bit of doubt and questions around some of it, but I imagine I'll figure it out. once I start getting into it. So yeah, feels good to have this solid base though. Super, super solid. It ain't going anywhere. And, uh, yeah, excited to be up here in, uh, winter conditions and keep cranking away. So right now I'm measuring for for the very first rim joist that's going to go on the long edge on top of the beam. I'm positioning a full 14-foot rim joist in the middle so it's kind of over the crack where the beams meet, so there isn't a crack running all the way up and down through the beams and the rim joist. And then I will butt up 2 other 7-foot pieces of rim joist material so I can make the full 28-foot length along one long side. Alright, so that's the first nail into the rim joist and kind of represents the first step of building the whole floor structure now on top of the beams. I got all the floor material up here and all ready to go. We're about to get completely hammered by about a foot of snow here in the next couple days, so I'm gonna pause here. I'm gonna wrap up the episode here, but thanks so much for coming along. On this ride. And next time we'll be building out the whole floor, getting that all set up and ready to go vertical from there.
