Structural home repair screw jack build.

[fyidiy]

Finally, the progress has moved inside... Second floor joists repaired! Only one more to go.

You can see the temporary beam being used to support the second floor while the repair work is performed.

Couldn't do this job without the screw jacks, that's for sure.

[fyidiy]

All floor joists now repaired. No more temporary support from the great room below. Building inspector has approved moving on to the next phase which is correcting the water damage rot of the second floor ceiling/roof-truss intersection.

The screw jacks and cribbing towers will be employed on the second floor to "lift" the roof truss system off the exterior load bearing wall to affect the repair.

First photo shows the temporary support posts from the first floor great room missing. The second photo shows the right-most remaining floor joist scabbed and anchored into place with hanger.

Makin' progress!

[fyidiy]

Second floor ceiling taken down to reveal the roof truss system.

The building inspector has stated that if there's *any* compromise of the truss system I'll have to spring for an engineering consult. Don't know how that's going to be less than $500.00.

Anywho, I hope I can convince him some plywood gussets will fix the problem without wasting the money on a "consult". Besides, gussets will be the solution an engineering firm would specifiy.

Photo #1. Ceiling dropped revealing the roof truss system.
Photo #2. Water damaged truss plus the original builder modification for chimney installation -- a no-no. "D" cell battery for scale.
Photo #3. What a normal truss looks like.
Photo #4. Another view of the bad truss. The fresh wood and metal to the right is the "quickie" roof fix for when I took down the chimney.

[geezer]

I guess I'm your first responder,,,reason nobody else has responded is,,this project is every home owners nightmare,,,many are wondering if they have the same problem,,,I cannot even guess at what the cost would be if you had to hire someone to do it....best of luck on your project...I shudder to think of undertaking a job like that..

[fyidiy]

Yeah, it's kind of a big project... But, one day and one sub-task at a time. Mount Rushmore wasn't completed in a day. I figure I'm past the half way point for the structural stuff. The bedroom and the bathroom will still need to be reconstituted after this work (drywall, paint, flooring, etc.).

On the beneficial side I pretty much know the inside of the house now. It's all electric and I'm planning to convert it over to natural gas. I know know where all the wall voids are for the piping, intake, and exhaust runs.

The future plan is also to remove all the stucco on the house and replace with concrete fiber clapboard siding. There are a few other small cracks in the current stucco and I want to make sure to catch and fix any other water damage issues before they get as big as this one...

The building inspector stopped by yesterday (01/26/2015) and approved my proposed fix for the roof truss. The good news being I don't have to spring for an official engineering consult. Basically, I'll be using triangular plywood gussets to sandwich the end of the bad truss in addition to a couple of lengths of new 2x4 as a bearing surface on the to-be-constructed wall.

[fyidiy]

Second floor external stucco wall removed.

That's one big hole in the side of the house...

[fyidiy]

Original window on the right removed. The wall cap plate has been repaired and wall studs installed. The studs on the right are just temporary for the "weather proofing" Visqueen. Once the current storm moves through I'll frame for a new larger window in its near original location.

Another week or so and the screw jacks welded up last summer will have completed their work!


Photo #1. Original window removed on the right and wall studs installed.
Photo #2. Old water damaged wall top plate replaced.
Photo #3. The butt joints for the top plate were planned to have their seems above a wall stud. The joints are staggered across the whole wall.
Photo #4. Visqueen applied to keep the weather out during today's (02/01/2015) Midwest winter storm.