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Thus starts a new job. The first pictures are before I touched anything
- terrible jack-leg carpentry, leaky roof, no insulation, weak floors, but worst
of all - a 5 foot ceiling in the back bedroom! The 4 layers of roof with
some osb in between (no exaggeration) had come due, and to keep from throwing
away money on yet another repair job - go ahead and fix it right - so off we
go...
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Here's the main issue: a lean-to roof with an addition just following the existing roof slope. The roof is in terrible shape, and cannot hold another layer of shingles. |
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The original house to the right, addition to the left. There's a line marking the difference. The new roof will go on these walls, they better hold up. |
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The house has potential for a very nice look with the red siding and white trim and we are going to keep that style, but with vinyl. |
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The house is about 760 square feet and 79 years old with many years of 'patchwork' repairs and neglect. It's long overdue for a major remodel. |
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We thought a new roof was close enough to go ahead and remove the old one, and see what we have ahead. Little did we know then that one of the walls was 7 inches out of level! |
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The infamous 5 foot ceiling. The bedroom is already a small room, and this makes it worse. All the sheetrock and framing in this picture will be replaced with new. |
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The corner under the wall that's 7" out of level. We hoped to replace the pier at this corner and move on to roof. This had to be dug by hand, half under the house. |
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We needed a hole on the inside of that corner to have a place to jack the house. 7 inches is no joke, and any weakness can be total disaster. |
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Pouring concrete footers. We measured where we wanted the bottom of the block to be and drove a piece of rebar to that height - filling the concrete to that level. |
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In the crawlspace (bellycrawlspace), we planned to work our way back downhill towards easier. This picture shows the bottom of an unsupported concrete slab. |
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A critical girder joint rotting and falling off of loose bricks. This can't stay this way...and replacing it is a big deal. It will need a jack, and a place to put it. |
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Another rotting joint. Termites made their way thru alot of this wood - they say copper flashing at these joints keeps the termites away. |
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We dug alot of dirt out for a 'manway' to get back to the far back corner and work. At the time we did not know this whole area would have the floor removed above. |
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A dust mask is definately required when working in these conditions. Not only is insulation and dirt dust all around, but there may be other dusts, hopefully no lead or asbestos. |
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This is what happens after 79 years if you don't support one of the ends of the board. The only reason this failed is improper placement of the pier. |
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This jack is lifting the middle so we can put a properly placed pole to hold it. The girder is directly above an earthen wall, so we had to span it with an I beam. |
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One end of the I beam sat on 2 blocks (dug out for level) uphill, and the other end sat on this pier of double stacked blocks - also much more critically dug out for level. |
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We dug about a foot deeper than the lowest part of the floor, and set these poles on alternating blocks. Always try to start all blockwork with a solid cap block. |
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Using solid cap blocks first gives a much larger 'footprint'. Here the concrete is about 1 inch higher than the bottom of the block, and the block set in place while the concrete's wet. |
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Demolition goes fast. In just a few short hours the two of us had all the walls down to this. The floor of this room is a 2 inch concrete pad with no support - all the dirt washed out. |
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This back room (with 6 foot ceilings) needs to go to make way for a new back porch. Be careful when doing demolition - it can fall on you! |
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At this point it's literaly held on by just a couple of nails, which I'm cutting now.. |
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Off the ladder, so I can run if I need to... (good time to remind you ABC Home Improvements in Knoxville can handle all your home improvement needs!) |
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And it fell like a house of cards, or sticks anyways. And like it was susposed to. Controled demolition is not dangerous, but it must be thought through. |
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Removing the pad. It was easy - only a couple of inches in places, and the footer was blocks set on dirt. Not the thing to hold our new walls. |
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We can now crawl all around! This picture shows the many pieces of floor repair and problems we are going to have to deal with before we can move on much farther. |
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The walls need a foundation...without one they will fail. With the concrete removed, we can now get to all this from the outside. Much much easier. |
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Here's the new foundation for the house. It's offset on the left side because the sewer pipe needs that room. It was less work to do this than move the sewer, and would still be as strong. |
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Concrete footer poured and rebar awaiting a block cavity to encompass it. We poured the pad exactly 9.5 inches below the bottom edge of the house framing for blocks and a sill plate. |
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This is the footer for the other side. When pouring concrete in winter, always keep it covered for at least 3 days, even putting a heater on it if necessary. Do not let it freeze. |
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Going on around the corner. We used a combination of 5 very heavy duty jacks, I beams, many blocks and many beams. Redoing a foundation is a major job, and should not be underestimated. |
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More footer around the other side of the house. This wall will be rafter load bearing after we build a gable, and the blocks there were just sitting on dirt. |
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Concrete can make all the differnce in doing a good job. Fill it full of rebar and you cannot fail. Make it deep enough and it will be there for hundreds of years. |
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Mortar the blocks onto the concrete, lay copper flashing, then a sill plate 'converts' it to carpentry. The plate should be anchored into the concrete-filled cavities of the blocks. |
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All this until now is slow work with shovels. Yuck. So, we decided to take a break from that and do something with much quicker gratification, and since we can do roofing fast, we decided to go ahead and roof the front. |
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