Mantle mon...let's hang another mantle

This mother of a mantle came from a tree we had to remove in order to have the house located on the property where we did. There was a lot of talking until I had to bite the bullet and cut it down......so the woodcraver had a mobile sawmill come in and cut it after I picked out the part I wanted to serve as the mantle piece in the great room. Other parts of the tree will be used in the other rooms also. It took 8 guys to carry this 1,100 pound mother of a mantle into the house.


It was so heavy that lifting it up in place was out of the question, they screwed two heavy 3/4 inch lag bolts into the top, strapped it with a electric hoist and after testing it a couple of times.....we were ready to give it a shot.


The arched rafters in the great room were used to hang the hoise from, so this was a good test on both ends.......and up she came....


Before we actually started the test of lifting this mantle up.....I took James to get out from between the fireplace and the mantle in case something happened.....not sure how fast he can run, but if this sucker drops it would end up on the second level in about 2.3 seconds.....along with the 8-10 floor joists......


Ever so slowly they moved the mantle higher and higher.....no mistakes on this one...PLEASE!!!!!


I think this picture is funny for a number of reasons, but the amigo on the left is trying to hold it up with his head.....think about that....ROTFL. What is really going on is two guys are in the back screwing in 3/4 by 12 lag screws with triple washers into the mantle from behind. Remember where it said "BRACE" what was because I thought it needed more beef right there.....it did. These guys were yelling HURRY YOU MORONS....to the guys inside.....


The mantle itself was made longer then the fireplace so it could be custom fit on site....the really test came when James left the hoist down.....and took the weight off the straps......it held to our surprise.


The woodcraver was up on the scaffolding eyeing it up to see if it was level...I guess and staying in place.....He was also looking at where he needed to carve in the shelves for the candles...more on that later...


Well they drew straws to see who would let the pressure off the straps and remove them.....Ray won...I mean lost and everyone else walked away ........