PHASE #6 of Home
Remodeling Project
Reconstruction begins
[On to Phase 7]
[Project Overview]
[Home Design Reference]
[Lien Waver Example]
[Buy
a House] [Heating & AC]
With
most the walls now gone, workers rebuilt atop the exiting floor forming new walls using
2x6 wall studs over the previous 2x4 construction that was used for the
first floor.
Tools Used:
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Level: A must for ensuring
that walls and floors are square and true. It is very difficult if not impossible to base
something off sight. |
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Combination Square: Great
for marking square lines on piece of wood to cut. Handy 45 degree angle also built in. |
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Laser Level: Used to obtain
a common leveling point among points 360 degrees around the current point. This allows you
to make all walls the same height. |
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Tape Measure: Make fast and
easy measurements with this tape measure. It is still the best overall measuring device
for builders. |
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Circular Saw: The best all
around saw for quickly cutting framing materials. |
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The Actual Work:
 Here the west wall was rebuilt and hoisted
upright. These walls were formed by cutting down the existing walls and forming a plate
(near the bottom) which sits atop the balloon construction below. Long supports (diagonal
2x6 front and center) held the walls level. Nails kept the walls from
moving at the base, and diagonal supports (behind the front diagonal shown going up left
to right along the wall) kept the walls from moving side to side -- all were important in
keeping the new wall true up until it was interlocked with other new walls and sheeting
was applied.
 Here the east wall was rebuilt. This wall
contained some existing 2x4 portion of old wall (again about 6 feet) and the rest was a
combination of 2x6 over new construction and 2x4 over old construction.
You can also see near the top of this the roof trusses which were laid
across the walls so as to provide a support for a tarp which was used to
partially cover the roof in the event of rain. Rain was not in the forecast
for the first couple weeks of construction.
Since these trusses did not require any
inter-wall support (all weight is supported by the outside [east/west] walls) they started
to set them immediately after the walls were framed in. Here the first four trusses were
set and the first triple (or girder truss was constructed).
 Once these trusses were set, work began on
completing the east wall (which is over the back porch). This required removal of the shed
roof, and then building new walls in place of the roof. In the far right corner of this
picture you can see the crane operator who the builders had to YELL down commands for him
to understand how he should operate the crane. Memories of BOOM DOWN, CABLE UP, being
yelled at the operator could be heard from blocks away. The problem was the crane operator
sat right next to the engine which meant he could not hear the commands unless they were
very loud and could be heard over the engine.
 Trusses were set right up to areas awaiting
further destruction/construction -- such as that of the back porch.Shown here is also
the old sewer vent pipe to the right. The new second/third floors would receive brand new
plumbing.
Once the back porch roof was gone (and I mean gone), the walls had to be
rebuilt to support floor trusses and walls. This was all the contractor had
to work with - which was pretty much nothing at all.
 To build up these walls above the porch,
something called a knee wall was built and then floor joists spanned across this area
where a floor was laid (on the second floor) and a new east wall was built. Missing was
the west wall of the porch which is needed to mount the trusses over the porch.
 Here the front of the house was laid to rest --
a fitting end to the sunburst! boards where placed in front of the windows to protect them
and within a few cuts the whole front of the house (the second floor part) just all came
crashing down...Shown here is the sole surviving piece of all the second floor walls.
Upon framing this front wall, all that remained in terms of framing was the dormers
which unfortunately did not come with the trusses as requested. Instead, these were to be
hand-framed on site. [On to Phase 7]
[Project Overview]
[Home Design Reference]
[Lien Waver Example]
[Buy
a House] [Heating & AC]
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