Setting and securing the beams/skids/runner-- whatever you wanna call them.

Last time I went through and notched all of my 6x6 posts to have the beams rest in them. After putting all the posts back on the base brackets, I went and put up my beams to:

1. See if everything is level.
2. See if the notch cut sizes were correct.

Oddly enough, things were looking good. And with that confirmation, I was ready to start tightening things down. 

At first, I went ahead and tightened the base brackets down. I got them pretty tight, but was afraid to crush the washer. Later, after putting my posts in and hammering the upper part of the base bracket to make it snug around the post, I noticed that the bracket started moving on the ½ bolt which sits in the cement. Apparently I needed the brackets to be very tight. I removed the post and re-tightened all the base brackets.

Once all the posts were back on the brackets, I tried to level each one within the bracket as best as I could while also making sure that each sat flat on the base of each bracket. Once all that was done, I drilled pilot holes in the posts and used the special Simpson galvanized screws to secure the Simpson base brackets to the posts.

Attaching the 6x6 support post to the Simpson strong tie bracket.

  

With all the posts leveled and attached, I was ready to put the beams in their place. I put one 2x10 board up at a time. Once I had both boards sitting in the notches, I used a long ½ spade drill bit and drilled 2 holes in each post, diagonally from each other, to attach the beams to the posts.

Using 2 through bolts on a diagonal, we attach the 2x10 beams to the support posts.

I will need to go back and nail the two 2x10’s to each other for each beam. The nails will sit 16” apart and will use 3 nails aligned one on top of the other at each location.

Up next is the floor box, joists and plywood! Now it’s looking like something!!

With everything being ready for the floor box, I decided to use the box we initially built out of 2x4s when we were first trying to figure out where to place the sauna. It came in handy once again as we were able to preview the next step. It also alerted me to one possible sizing mistake.

The sauna I’m building is 12’ wide and 14’ long. The beams run front to back and are 14’ feet even. The floor box will sit flush with the edges of the beams along the 12’ sides and will overhang past the beams along the 14’ sides. Although we hammered the 2x4 mockup box pretty quickly, I think we forgot to calculate for the 1.5” on both sides to accommodate the rim joist thickness :) This was evident when we placed the mockup on our beams and the edges hung over the beams instead of being flush with them :) Ooops! Luckily, we didn’t cut the real 2x10s, so nothing lost.