Today was a special day ! It was the day planned to insert the main wooden beam into the building. This 700 kg beam will be the main support for my office floor and stairs, so it's a massive big wooden beam. Since it's so heavy, they decided to use a crane to "walk" it into the shed, and place inside the walls. A very delicate operation.

Since it had been raining cats & dogs for days now, the ground had turned in deep mud, not interesting for a crane:



So they put wooden planks that the truck carrying the crane could drive over and rest on. They were very much afraid that with the soft mud, the truck could sink.




Previously, they had taken out all beams in the last part of the roof (where the dormer window will be). They needed that space open for the crane.



They did a trial run without any load on the crane, just to see how far it would go, and where to move the crane.



Then the 700 kg beam was hooked up to the crane. The weather was nice, sunny, so everyone was in good mood.



The beam was hoisted, and slowly moved towards the opening.



Then the beam was lowered and slowly loved into the shed, while two guys were walking it into the door frame.



When the crane reached the limited of the wall, the beam was rested on metal frames, and the beam was unhooked.



The crane was then re-hooked to the beam, this time on the inside of the shed.



And then the beam was walked further into the shed.



Then a God almighty hail storm struck !! For 30 minutes, it kept pelting down, while the lads kept working !



The crane operator did not have much visibility inside the shed, and had to look through a corner to move the crane up and down, left and right.



Slowly, they moved the beam into the hole they had made in the wall at the road side.



Even the neighbor was drafted to relay the movement signals to the crane operator.



There was almost no maneuver space for the crane, since there are beams and roofs and walls and pillions everywhere.



They rested the beam on metal frames, so they could unhook the crane and reshift the load.



Finally the moved the "house" side of the beam up.



... and into position.



The road side part of the beam, was held in position, and pushed by wooden rods.



Finally, the beam was in position, and they started closing up the holes.

What a nerve racking operation that was. Afterwards, when the moved the truck out, the neatly raked the garden to a "normal", but muddy state.