Howdy folks;
I got pointed this way by some folks over at Fine Homebuilding's Breaktime forum when I started talking about doing a small Post & Beam project. My wife and I bought a 113 year old brick church to turn into our single family residence 3 years ago. The bones are good, and we're not trying to make a particularly conventional home out of this place - it was a church, and more than that it was a building with a lot of character (much torn out or sold off over the years, unfortunately). We like the old building and are doing our best to expose the beauty of it as it is - not trying to make it into something it's not. We've exposed and sealed some of the brick inside. We've insulated up at the roof sheathing and exposed the old scissor-truss rafters to the interior. They're milled, but somewhat rough and not always the same size. We're fine with that, because the stuff I'll be building may suffer from the same issues =)
Having said all that, we do have to build and partition some parts of the interior - specifically in the sanctuary, now our "great room". It's 48x30 with a 31ft height at the peak (removing the plaster & lath ceiling gave us an extra 8ft). This room has huge gothic arched windows on the East & West walls, and some smaller ones along the south wall. The north wall is the only interior wall from the original structure (barring closets or bathrooms I suppose), and behind this wall are where we'll have our bedrooms. Our plan is to build a loft/deck inside the sanctuary that runs along that north wall (48ft) is made up of three platforms - a larger center one and two smaller, raised "wings" at opposite ends (home office space for me and the wife).
This loft is what I want to make out of post and beams. I've found a guy locally on craig's list that disassembles old barns, and has a pretty good supply (he says) of clean 8x8 pine & chestnut timbers (horizontals that run 16ft or more) for $2bf. It's got me excited about building the loft in a way that wouldn't be too out of place with the age and style of the rest of the building.
I'm still getting a design mocked up for the loft, but for the moment I'll post some pics of the place as-is:
Some original building photos: eyepulp.net/photo/set/72157605530397200/
Some early truss photos: eyepulp.net/photo/set/72157605530357684/
The new ceiling: eyepulp.net/photo/set/72157605705083579/
Slightly out of date model of what we're building: eyepulp.net/photo/set/72157605535570345/
{Moderator note: active links to off site pictures are not allowed, I modified your links removing the "http://www" so that they are not active. Anyone wishing to view his pictures can copy the address to their browser and view them.
You'll have to create an album here and place your picture in it here if you want to show your pictures in your posts here.}
I just wanted to introduce myself before I started bugging ya'll with annoying questions. Essentially I'm here to listen and learn. I can't say as I'll have much to contribute for a while, but I'm happy to ask the dumb questions so others may not have to... =)
I'll get a mockup of the loft design posted soonly.
Welcome to the forum.
Look forward to seeing more of your project (in your gallery for sure :) ).
How do you handle local building codes in this type of re-construction?
Any University help available to you in the design area?
And look for your questions and your expertise as well.
EyePulp:
First of all welcome.
I modified your posting as active links to off site pictures are not allowed. You'll have to create an album here and put your picture in it if you want the to show in your posts.
Forum rules apply to everyone, please read them so that you don't get in trouble with anyone, over here.
Jim Rogers
Moderator
Yikes - apologies for violating the photo policy. My computer seems to choke on the uploader thing, so I'll stick to text. I did some searches for the a post of all the forum rules, but apparently not very well - can I trouble someone for a link so I don't drive off into the weeds again? =)
Thanks again.
Hi and welcome,
I will also wonder about building code. You may want to start with asking at the building inspectors office about using old timbers and such. If it is not structural and will only hold a sleeping loft in the end you might install it open for inspection purposes and then install your deck after the inspectors have left, but be careful. Cool old timbers can be dry rotted death traps
Welcome to the FF, we really like pictures as it shows us what you are doing, which then helps with the comments. if you take a little time the pictures are even easier than when I 1st joined. I uploaded some pictures today in the java method and it was great, click, click and it was done. if you need help just ask. I would think your biggest problem will be the Building department, you will have to find an engineer who will okay used timbers or lumber and that is hard. Good luck!, and keep the post going we would like to see how you make out.
Welcome, friend, and you'll find lots of good advice and not-so-good humorous comments (our jokes tend to be pithy but not all that funny really, at least mine fit that category...). As far as your project goes, sounds exciting and very doable. In fact, there's another thread here describing essentially the same sort of retro-fit of a TF inside an existing building- maybe someone can supply the link? I'm fighting some flu bug and just about to run out of energy for now...
Best of luck and hang in there- remember the old saying: "Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration."
Lj
Welcome Eyepulp.
And glad to see you up and at it a little LJ. Hope you get to feeling better.
I viewed your photo's and you have a very worthwhile project ahead of you! The structure is beautiful, and I love to see old buildings restored to usefulness.
Great project!
How many sqft is the church? How do you plan on heating A/C it?
If your building is already standing, you might not have as much of a problem with inspections as we are harping on.