Could someone please tell me what “da…” this steel beam doing in the attic? It has steel cables wrapped around its mid-span and running to the exterior walls but not atttached to anything!
Is it possible that this beam was used as a hoist when the building was erected in 1948?
I saw something similar on a friends house, the original owner also owned a lumber yard so he had a massive network of timbers in the attic laying across the ceiling joists with huge bolts holding 5x10 braces to the main 12x12 timber and 3/4 threaded rods going down all the way to the foundation. A massive storm might take the roof off but the upper floor would not be going anywhere.
I think someone had that in mind for the steel beam but forgot to plan for and install the connections to the foundation. Or, maybe it was a modular house and they stored the beam in the attic, but it looks small for a single hoist beam.
Part of the Christmas tree? Just stuffed away in the attic and forgotten.
I inspected a house that had a HUGE, plastic Santa (7’ tall) in the attic. Seems that the owner (3 owners ago) used it for a display, and left it. The next 2 owners never went in the attic.
Once, while crawling an attic, I found an 1862 Civil War Cavalry Sword. I left it there, and asked the buyer if I could do a Pre-closing walk throgh. Then, during the walk through I “found” the sword and asked if I could buy it (after the closing). He gave it to me.
Vintage sword (I collect swords), and assessed at $10,570. I kept it for my collection.
So, I would guess, to the original question, that this is a “vintage” steel beam.