Allen House basement
Overview
Two problems initially plagued the Allen house basement:
- The Allen house sits on an above-ground basement constructed of
bricks held together with poor quality mortar. So with son-in-law Chris Reiter's
prompting, we
decided to use steel tubing to strengthen the basement walls in case of an earthquake. This involved hiring a
Paul Hightower, an engineer to prepare professional
drawings and structural calculations so that the end result would meet
current building codes ... along with a lot of hard work.
- The heating and cooling system was grossly
inadequate. Actually, the Sears gas forced air heater was OK, but the
ductwork leaked like a sieve. This meant the basement initially got as warm
or warmer than the upstairs. And the initial cooling system involved opening
windows in the summertime. This worked poorly because the old double-hung
wood windows generally either had storm windows or were painted shut. So we
installed an air conditioning system. This allows us to keep the windows
closed while maintaining a comfortable temperature inside.
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December 2006: We decided the uneven floor
needed improvement, so during Christmas break, I laid tiles on the floor.
Here you see me playing ping pong with my father, Wes Sullivan, on the new
floor. Note that I haven't yet finished the tiles on the floor's border. |
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July 2007: I still haven't cleaned out the
grout joints and put mortar in the joints, but this shows all the tiles in
place. |
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The entire strength of the foundation reinforcement
project relies on having the steel beams tied securely to the ground. To
make sure this would happen, we poured a 6-inch thick perimeter of concrete
entirely around the house. |
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Throughout this perimeter, we installed rebar to
strengthen everything. |
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I used a welder to tack weld all the rebar together
into a solid unit that couldn't shift during the concrete pour. |
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Paul Hightower, the professional engineer who
designed this project, required us to dig a massive hole under the central
support in the middle of the basement. We loaded this hole with lots of
rebar spaced half-way down the hole. |
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More shots showing how rebar and footings were
placed. |
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Paul Hightower wanted the concrete chopped back from
the existing footing for the chimney. So a lot more work went into to
prepping the footings for this photo than most people would expect. We
rented a jack hammer to try to remove the existing footing, and the progress
was quite slow because the footing contained a wire mesh that held
everything together. Metal and concrete make a very sturdy and hard to
remove mixture. |
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We decided to pour concrete under the kitchen porch
area at the same time as we poured everything else. This shows Dave Helton
framing a temporary support to hold the porch while the concrete is being
poured. |
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The kitchen porch area, ready for concrete. |
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We also decided to pour concrete under the back porch
area where the air conditioning unit sits. One of our cats, Riley, is doing
his best to participate. |
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As a last-minute addition, I decided to add another
support in the basement next to the furnace. This wasn't on Paul Hightower's
original plan, but it seemed like a good move to me. |
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The prep work is done, so Dave Helton and I take a
break. |
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First the pumper truck arrives, then the concrete
truck backs up. |
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Placing concrete in the forms. This part went very
quickly compared to the months of effort necessary to install the
steel beams and organize the footings. |
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The massive footing in the center of the basement
bring the floor back to its original level and hides all the rebar inside.
|
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Dave Helton did a super job of troweling surfaces to
look good. |
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The kitchen porch area gets concrete. |
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The back porch area gets concrete, and I do my best
to trowel it flat. |
June 2005: More welding and prepping
for concrete
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Getting the right fit was critical ... it made
welding beams together much easier and resulted in stronger connections.
These pictures show how the main beam through the central part of the
basement attaches to supporting beams across the front of the house. |
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Wooden shims helped get beams aligned perfectly prior
to final welding and lag bolting them to the house. |
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Getting beams into position wasn't easy. We used
ladders to hold them temporarily as we jockeyed them into position. At the
end of the project, these ladders had had their tops crushed by the weight
of the beams. |
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We mostly worked from the front to the back of the
house. This shows the back wall. |
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This sequence shows how we fitted beams into the wall
just behind the home's front porch. |
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I needed to build up a sturdy method of tying
everything together at the bottom of the stairs while routing the new beams
around existing pipes. |
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Ken uses a chisel to cut pockets to accept so
supports can slide under the home's existing wooden sill beams. |
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We tried to do as much welding and cutting as
possible outside where it was easier to work. Here you can see a beam that
has been fitted with supports to extend under the sill beams so that if all
the bricks in the basement were removed, the house would still stand
unchanged. You also can see lots of tabs that have been welded onto the beam
to accept lag bolts. In an earthquake, those lag bolts will hold the house
firmly to the steel beams. |
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This sequence shows how we fitted beams into the west
wall (under the first-floor bedroom). This required a moderate amount of
plumbing work to move copper pipes out of the way. |
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This sequence shows beams being installed down the
east wall of the basement. Note that the uprights don't extend all the way
to the floor. Since we will be pour concrete around the floor's perimeter,
we left the uprights dangling in the air several inches short of the floor.
|
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I should have carried boxes of Christmas decorations
and other household junk upstairs much earlier to get it out of the way.
Here you see me in typical welding garb. |
April 2005: Installing the steel
skeleton
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I took this picture because it shows a part of the
wall where the mortar has failed completely. |
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One of the first steps was to move all the electrical
and plumbing connections out of the way. I needed to drill holes in the
floor joists so I could thread wires and pipes out of sight. |
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We piled things in the center of the basement to
provide better access to the walls. |
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This shows the base of the stairs prior to installing
the steel. The white newel posts came from the front and kitchen porch. I
removed them because of rot ... I will need to turn new identical posts and
reinstall them. |
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Here we see the ductwork looking toward the front of
the house. |
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The utility area was filled with storage and
household junk. If I had the project to do over again, I would move all this
stuff completely out of the basement right at the beginning. Instead, some
of it was moved repeatedly from one location to another as the project
proceeded. |
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Above: I used 4-by-4 posts with all-thread
bolts on top to build temporary supports.
Below: The temporary supports rested on wood footings and shims. |
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Looking toward the back of the house, we see an
unused chimney along with various shelves and the furnace. The chimney
reached only to the first floor, but it provided structural support. So I
wanted to remove it as part of this overall project. |
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By this time, I have removed the original beam and
replaced it with temporary supports. You can see the brick pads which held
up the original beam -- they were only about one square foot in size. Paul
Hightower's structural plans called for much larger footings. |
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Perhaps the most interesting part of this image is
the white 2-by-4 support that someone installed to support the first floor
next to the window. It indicates the sad state of affairs I found prior to
taking on this project. |
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The east wall prior to adding steel beams ... |
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To provide proper support for the house, each outside
steel beam needed to have struts that would extend under the home's sill
beam. This required Bill Cutler to remove bricks to create a pocket for each
strut. He used a drill and chisels to remove bricks carefully. The goal was
to create pockets that did not extend all the way through the wall, leaving
the external appearance of the home unchanged. |
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We needed to use temporary supports to hold up the
center of the house while old wooden supports were removed and the new steel
beams were inserted. |
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Bill Cutler and I prepare the steel beams prior to
moving them into the house. Each beam weighted 450 pounds, so they weren't
easy to move. Here you see Bill grinding to get a clean surface where I
would later weld on brackets. |
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Welding from above was a snap ... I am super
confident about the strength of these welds. |
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The finished beam, ready to be moved inside. |
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Bill and I used PVC tubing to help roll the heavy
beams into the basement. |
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Barb pretends to be lifting the beam into place. In
actual fact, it took Bill and I several hours of hard work to slowly lift
and shift each of these central beams into position. |
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A close-up view showing how each support bracket was
welded into position. Each clip is attached with many more inches of weld
than the formal specs from Paul Hightower required. |
2004: HVAC (Heating and Cooling) work
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December 23, 2004: It really helps to have two
son-in-laws who have worked professionally with HVAC systems. Chris Reiter
and Andrew Ramsey installed the majority of a new air conditioning system.
This system came on-line at the end of the summer heat ... and it made a
huge difference. |
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December 23, 2004: Andrew Ramsey also
retrofitted the ductwork -- building new ducts, wrapping existing ones, and
sealing leaks. |
2003: Strengthening the foundation
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December 13, 2003: Chris Reiter deserves the credit for
talking us into using steel to support the basement. |
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October 18, 2003: I took the 4x4 posts to be sandblasted
and what a difference that made! This shows them with a quick primer coat.
Next will come a glossy black paint. |
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October 18, 2003: Initial plans for the
foundation strengthening project as Visio saves them in a
web page format. |
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October 9, 2003: So I went to
Cherry City Metals
to look for scrap tube steel. After spending roughly $1300, here is the pile
of steel they dropped off at my house. Here is a detailed list of what I
bought: |
|
Quantity |
Length |
Size |
Thickness |
Cost / Lb.
|
Description
|
Comments |
|
6 |
15 to 23 feet |
5"x5" |
3/16" |
$
0.25 |
Tube steel
|
Painted glossy white |
|
2 |
23 |
4"x4" |
1/4" |
$
0.20 |
Tube steel
|
Primed gray,
plates w/2 holes on each end |
|
6 |
22 |
3"x4" |
3/16" |
$
0.25 |
Tube steel
|
Primed gray, will need
a bit of clean up to remove brackets,
plates on each end |
|
3 |
27 |
1.5x1.5 |
3/16" |
$
0.25 |
Tube steel
|
for cross bracing,
unpainted |
|
1 |
15 |
2.5x2.5 |
1/4" |
$
0.25 |
Tube steel
|
for cross bracing,
primed gray |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
14 |
8 |
4x4 |
1/4" |
$
0.20 |
Tube steel
|
East post has 11x11"
base with four 5/8" holes, |
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|
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has VERY sturdy
4.5"x4.5" jacketing for the first 2
feet, |
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and needs to be
sandblasted and primed |
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200+ |
|
1.5"x1.5" |
1/8" |
$
0.25 |
angle bracket
|
bucket of joist clips,
w/2 holes in each clip |
|
15 |
|
8x8 |
3/8" |
$
0.25 |
plate steel
|
plates with four 5/8"
holes in the corners
|
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Total weight: 5300 lbs |
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October 9, 2003: This shows a close-up of the 4x4 posts,
complete with base plate and lots of rust. |
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October 9, 2003: The 3x4 and 4x4 tube steel mostly has
pieces of slotted steel that have been tacked onto the side. My guess is
that these pieces were originally used for shelving in an industrial
warehouse. It took a fair amount of grinding to remove and clean up this
steel. |
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September 27, 2003: Placing temporary supports in the
basement to prepare for steel supports. |
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September 27, 2003: This stub of the original chimney only
went to the basement ceiling. A prior owner had removed most of the chimney.
I decided to remove the rest and was surprised at how easily the bricks were
removed. At times, I could grab bricks by hand and simply yank them from the
chimney. This left me quite concerned about the mortar in the basement
walls. |
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September 27, 2003: I tried scraping the mortar in the basement walls with my
fingernail. I found it flaked off. Next, I examined how the first floor was
attached to the basement walls, and I couldn't find any bolts or other method of
attaching these two items. I concluded the house sits on top of the basement and
is held there only by gravity.
(Note as of December 2005: I now know the original builders chiseled
mortise-and-tendon connections between each 2-by-4 in the walls and the sill
beams. These connections were not initially visible because the pockets are on
top of the sill beams. This super-strong system took A LOT of labor originally,
but illustrates the sort of quality craftsmanship that went into building this
home.) |
The
Allen-House.Com and
RoyalHouse1873.com websites
are maintained
by
Dave and
Barbara Sullivan who live in the N. H. Allen House at 208 6th Avenue SE, Albany, Oregon. Our home phone
is 541-924-5983.
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