Huber Norman Lumber, Marietta, GA

[Don P]

These images are from google book's "Building Age and National Builder", 1919. The images are generally close to the framing types in this old house.

The main house is braced frame, which is the right half of this sketch, the left is balloon frame, notice studs go through the floor.


 

The later kitchen wing is a blend of notions, where the original house was built by good carpenters. It shows that things were changing in between the 2 parts of the building. It has elements of what they were at the time calling a combination frame. It has almost become our platform frame at this point. Rim joists, subfloor, sole plate, then studs. One less unobstructed mouse and fire run.




By the time balloon framing with its long slender framing came in they realized bracing had to change. You stop seeing heavy posted corners and header posts with low diagonal bracing mortised or more often spiked. The thin 2x4 would simply bend if a brace handed it a side load. Use the entire wall as the brace and diagonally sheath it.

[JRWoodchuck]

Awesome Don! Really really awesome! Thanks for taking the time to share. 

[Don P]

I got some rafters and plastic on before the rain yesterday but still took some water on. I saw what seems to happen to every low brace I've ever encountered, they funnel water, rotting the brace and usually the area around it.


 

When I left today it was pretty well covered. I think that was about 45 sticks of what one visitor called "two by heavy" :D. You can see how I temporarily cantilevered it out 8' over the porch area. The overall span of that is 32' at 4/12 pitch. There will be kneewalls running on top of load bearing walls below and under the rafters basically starting from each corner of the tyvek and running back to the house. I've got plastic over the top and hoping the wind stays down till midnight when we should clear out.


 

This was getting me damp at the end and I hit a good shower on the way home. I'll plane some 18' pine boards tomorrow, no joints in a row so it should board up solid in no time. We'll cover it Monday, then detail it out. and take a few days, this was about day 14 of running for the roof.

[Don P]

We had the well guy there retrofitting a pitless on the well, and while he had his little hoe there I asked him to run along the power conduit that was shallow at the house until it was deeper and rebury the entrance.

Well, it never got deeper and I can't turn a blind eye to that  :D. We've run all kinds of stuff over this, I've had the forks in the dirt more than once. I'm amazed we haven't hurt it.  I'll ride the jackhammer and shovel for awhile tomorrow. "Never time to do it right, always time to do it twice".



 

I took about 700bf of pine for the roof sheathing and had 2 sticks left. Didn't make out so well on the titanium, covered the back and front except I was that top row short in my leftover stash. Happily DB has a little leftover so they've made out well on the roof thus far. We're going to see what metal cost has done I'm sure.

[Don P]

The day after I took that last pic of the open trench. The trench bisected the property from the old farmhouse to the pavilion with bathrooms, the path to the chickens and pigs, springhouse, garden. Yup I had a big mess open but theoretically a window to get it done in. I jackhammered the last rocks, laid the cable in the trench and am politely raking clean dirt on top till it's well covered before hopping on the machine and finishing the fill. Or that was the plan. I'm down in the trench a good 10 or 15' into doing it nice and I see the short bus pull in, an unplanned visit. I whistle at Mark to go help them and hop on the machine. He gives them a thorough donkey and cow tour and through the shops and breaks out the freeze pops till I pop around the corner that the coast is clear, just another day of fun  :D.

Anyway, we've got the roof framed and I'll probably have it detailed out tomorrow. We got the old roof out from under it now that the new roof will keep the diggings dry. The temporary posts are under the porch beam and then the roof continues down to cover the stone steps into the root cellar. There's still a lot of rocks to go. A pair of mini splits will tuck under the porch.

[Don P]

I was getting ready to climb up to work this morning, till we looked up. A big rat snake was sliding around my new porch ceiling joists.  Our fearless director rescued the snake and relocated it and I was off to the races. After lunch, I'm back out on the scaffold and a second one comes sliding over my new work. I relocated it but I believe it was beyond rescue, and I needed to remove the siding from that wall anyway.

I got a few inside details of the roof framing. I spent Saturday on my knees in the attic.
This is a kneewall under the rafters to the left side. That wall is over the kitchen/entry wall below and over a wall and then footing in the basement, follow your load paths to ground. You've got to think it through from the top down but you have to build it in from the bottom up. Down towards the heel the ceiling joists span ~10' and lap onto the 22' long ceiling joists that span 14' over the kitchen. When things cross over bearing points those members should be blocked. Look under the kneewall, the lap calls for a certain number of nails for tension continuity across the rafter feet and then they are blocked over the bearing wall and the blocking is also nailed to the bottom plate of the kneewall. In the end I'll rip the ply and cover the kneewalls then board the floor with pine flooring we recovered from below. I'm building this wing as stiff as possible and then will run some rods through the second floor of the main house and cinch it to this rigid wing.





Those 22' joists that span 14' over the kitchen cross over that exterior kitchen wall and extend out 8' more to form the porch ceiling and the lower heeljoint of the rafters on that side of the roof. I'm still over blocking under this wall but the top is different. There are 2x8 rafter extensions sistered onto the main 2x12's. So one cripple is under the 2x12 rafter and one extends up to support the 2x8. The load goes down the exterior frame wall to the basement block wall below.




From the kitchen/porch door, looking under the ceiling joists, porch carry beam (which is really hanging from the cantilevered joists at this point). From there the 2x8 rafters and ceiling which will be exposed on the underside, continues on out to cover the stairs to the basement. The strips and plastic are to hopefully keep roof water out of the stair pit for the time being. You can see nice "show" blocking out on those exposed rafters over that furthest beam. Inboard of that, that cluster over the porch carry beam,,, uhh yeah, that's gonna have to wait till there's a porch floor and I'm comfy. The load path for those 2 beams will be posts on roughly 5' centers down to 16+" thick stair sidewalls that launch off of 2' wide footings. I'll use the bigger rocks from the original foundation that were too large for the basement walls.



 

I got one more downstairs of an uncluttered corner showing the poplar framing and board sheathing. I jacked the ceiling up a bay at a time and shot the ceiling boards to my new ceiling joists above.


 
Hmm, relatively uncluttered, you can't see the other corners  :D.

[Don P]

The BO came out to inspect this past week and asked for some details for the file. I just sent them and a narrative but I hate to waste that many hours on one file in a folder somewhere, so here's the pics of the grandkids :D. It might help with what the photos don't show above.

He asked for a flashing/WRB detail and about the girder attachment.


 



and a section of what I was rambling about with stairs and rocks and porches :D.."send me a section view :"

[taylorsmissbeehaven]

Thats quite a project Don! Good looking work, done right to last. A lot to be said for thinking things through. I find so many corners folks cut before me on remodels it kinda scares me. Be safe and watch out for those snakes!! :D Brian

[Don P]

Thanks, I appreciate all the attaboys I can get. Now for the egg on my face :D. In the narrative I turned in with those drawings I mentioned that I was waiting to hear back from Simpson on that porch hanger detail. I suspected they might not be happy with attaching through my diagonal board sheathing. They were not. My options are to remove pockets through the sheathing and attach the hanger to the 8x8 sill, or, posts to footings at grade and forget the hanger. We're going to clean off the basement wall footings and see if that is an option, if so setting the girders on posts with a tie from girder to sill for lateral support would do it and keep the flashing simple. Sizing beams is simple, failures are usually in those connection details.

Yeah, the patches and remuddling we have removed were downright scary. The roof over the kitchen had been chopped without understanding and was hanging by the nails in the sheathing boards. Termites holding hands  :D

[moodnacreek]

If I had to guess where above photos where taken I would say upstate New York. Beautiful work.

[Don P]

We finally got the outer basement stair wall in and posts up to the roof. No hurry, 14' overhang, hurricanes and winter coming  :D. The inner stone wall is within a few days and then I can frame the back porch while DB figures out the stone steps between those walls. You can see the top of my temporary wood stringers. That will be final grade as well.



 

Oh, the reason I posted. So I bought a logsplitter. They are really misnamed, they are so much more. The wife was out of town, turns out for longer than she expected down in FL, so with no grown ups in the house it was play time. I smashed an old 4bbl carb and a Honda transmission, lined a trash can with bricks, filled it with charcoal and aluminum and proceeded to pour some post standoff bases into rough sand molds.



 
I welded the knife plates to the rebar which runs up from the base of the wall. The knife -plate sticks up into a slot in the bottom of the post and the I'll drill through post and plate and stick a pair of 1/2" rods through to connect post to plate. These are all pics for the file at the building dept as well. Next on that load path I'll put in the hurricane ties to the rafters completing the uplift path from ground to rafters.



 

[moodnacreek]

Most mechanical / building things others can do, so can I, perhaps not professionally. Other than babbit I have never cast anything. The other day a guy wants 12 x 12 x 9' cedar porch posts and although I have 4 w. cedar logs I will not do it because if I hit a bad spot there is no back up. So I tell him who to call and the cedar guy wants  $250.00 @ foot. So the customer asks about pine and I tell him he has to get a welding shop to make riser brackets so the wood does not touch the concrete. I also mention that at one time someone would cast them but not anymore. I forgot about Don .   Hi Don.

[Don P]

We got a little further. It's been everything from 5 below to 65 above the past few weeks, we're runnin or duckin :D.

We got the porch started, our white oak floor, painted porch grey but it still has that look of painted oak, I like it. First T&G ceiling boards for the siding to die into, DB is in the basement painting the rest in front of the heater...
I'll have the inspector out this week to look over hurricane ties to beams, framing etc before I insulate and conceal this area.


 

This was my skidsteer path in and out of the basement, all it lacks now is some stone steps and a door. The root cellar is straight inside and then to the left is a wall across the basement and the staff workshop/ mechanical, modern stuff is hidden in the rest of the full basement.