Ron, Luis, Gary and a Glue-lam Beam.
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The beam is 15' long by 15" high by 7" wide! The plan is to have most of it exposed so there was lots of sanding and sealing prep work. |
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The temporary support walls are in place. Luis (non-professional) and Gary (professional) admire their work |
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Little do they know but they boxed in Ron. |
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There's only a narrow path to work in. |
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Gary, are you concerned about something? |
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The beam is partially supported on one end. |
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Ron holds up the beam! Yah right, it weighs over 300 lbs. |
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Jack also came to help. |
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The south end looks good! |
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And the north end, too! |
The first thing that needed to be done was to replace a major support beam and its 5 support posts that were "in the way".
Since the beam held up the front of the house, Ron had a nearby structural engineer, Ron Roberts, calculate the loads and design the proper size footings, beam, posts, and brackets.
This process turned up a serious construction problem with the house. There were no footings under the existing posts even though the original plans on-file at the county showed them. Guess the builder and the inspector got along pretty well. This explained why the floor sagged under each of the 5 posts - there was a 22 ton load pushing down on nothing but plywood and floor joists!
So...before any of the pictures you see here, Ron had to build two 30" square by 10" deep footings down in the crawl space, digging them out on his belly with a screwdriver and spoon. Then he and Val mixed and poured 17, 80lb bags of 5000psi concrete. Add two short 6x6 posts, a couple brackets, lots of nails and the problem was solved. And, we'll feel more secure when the big earthquake hits.
Gary Penniston, in the pictures, was our professional help for this project. He is a contractor from Gig Harbor. Replacing a beam is old-hat for him - although a 300+lbs 15'x15"x7" beam was a challenge.