We hope you're enjoying the blog. We have had a few comments, a couple of questions, and several local folks have stopped by when we are over at the house. If you blog followers have any questions or comments, feel free to comment at the end of an entry by clicking on the comment link at the end of a post entry. I'll try to answer questions with a reply comment or in the next post.
-SF
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This post contains a "trade secret." Here's the back story: So if you get a house moved and over its footings, what do you do when it is just a little bit "off"? If it just needs to have the northeast corner go a few inches north, but the northwest corner is just fine. How do you nudge a 60-ton house into being at exactly the right place? Yesterday, Bert said that he needed to do just that: Get the east end of the house moved just a few inches to the north. He also told us it's a pretty cool process, a trade secret, and "a little bit of magic" to get that accomplished. He did that magic today. Now get some rare knowledge.
First, remember that there are four piers holding the beams that the house is on. The house is on east-west beams that are set on rollers that roll on the long north-south beams. Bert has a hydraulic jack on each of the piers. Here's a photo.
Top beam is one of two running E-W the length of the house. The red roller is on one of two beams running N-S and extending beyond the house. Those are the beams used to roll the house onto its position over the basement footings. The 20-ton hydraulic jack is to the right of the roller.
To get the house to do this little "nudge the the north" that we needed, all four jacks are used. The two jacks under the east side of the house and the one on the southwest are set up in a special way. The one jack, near the northwest corner that is where it needs no correction, is set to just lift straight as it always would. The secret to getting the house to twist a bit is accomplished by putting a chunk of styrofoam under one side of each of the jacks that needs movement. When the jack is exerting force, the foam squishes down and the house moves just a bit. See the photo above and notice the white styrofoam on the right.
Here are two video clips of the house getting nudged a little. Using full screen (click the little icon on the bottom right that looks like 4 corner brackets) will allow you to see it better. You can see it move in both clips, but the second one is probably more obvious. This process was done three times in order to get the house in exactly the right alignment.
One nudge.
And another.
Next, alignment is checked. Do we need another nudge? (No)
Bert
checked the alignment with his plumb bob, making sure all four corners
of the house were lined up with the footings. That's pretty important
before the walls are formed up and poured!
Homeowner and blogger took off to do construction errands. We went to the house's former basement at 511 N. Main and loaded up the old water heater, furnace, and air conditioner to haul them to scrap recycling in town. We got enough money to eat lunch and have a few bucks left.
Old furnace and water heater went to recycling.
While we did that, Bert lifted the house up a bit and blocked it up so he could remove the 60-foot beams used to roll the house over (the bottom beam in the first photo on this post).
Each beam is pulled out with the skid steer.
Chain is attached and moved near the alley.
And they are loaded up on the trailer to go back to Bert's.
Meanwhile, the trip to town netted ordering a new back door, buying a rolling scaffold, and purchasing nearly 50 4x8 sheets of pink insulation board. The insulation board will go under the basement floor. It will be on top of the gravel, then the tubing for the radiant floor will be attached to it before the floor is poured.
Lots of 1-1/2 inch pink insulation board.
This coming week will see forms set for the walls and we should have the walls poured soon after that. Of course, everything is dependent on weather. Onward.....
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