Day 32 - another new floor!

The great (well, great for concrete curing purposes anyway - read "hot") weather and sunny skies allowed for the crew to get started on framing today. And did they ever get started! The delivery of the framing materials happened as planned on Thursday and they got right to work. They capped off the top of the basement walls and laid the subfloor.


Here you can see the joists going across the span and the sheeting on top. The edge is capped with OSB.

Going down the stairs into the basement, they had to create this one interior wall to hold up the structure going across the span. They used manufactured beams and 2x6 studs to hold them up where they met in the center.

The solid darker colored beam near the back is tied into the existing wall. It will be removed above the basement level but will remain largely intact in the basement, so it is a very good place to tie structure into.

Here is a close up of the manufactured beams they are using. It is essentially a 8" wide piece of oriented strand board (OSB) sandwiched between two 2x4s. Nothing fancy sounding about that, but they are really strong and a LOT lighter to move around than solid beams.

Here is a close up of the tie-in to the existing basement wall. The existing house is cement block with a brick outer layer that is tied directly into the block at certain points. Very strong, but not cost effective for us to continue into the addition.

They are having to dig a trench in the existing back wall all the way up the rear of the house to hold the steel reinforcement beam that will run along the depth of the addition on the second floor. This beam will allow for the large open area of the first floor addition without having to add depth to the joists (and lowering the ceiling).

Another view back from the existing back wall toward the rear. The opening in the stud wall will be the closet opening for the bedroom. The white tube sticking up out of the floor is the drain line that will be in the wall behind the stacked washer and dryer.

Cherry stump shot.

Cherry stump shot #2. Here you can see the width that we are left with from the front of the house to the back yard. It ends up being about 2 feet, which will be tight, but we will certainly remove the high fence in that area and replace it with something more open.

Here is the steel beam that I was talking about earlier. It was cut and drilled at the manufacturing facility with all of the correct holes for service predrilled. It cost a little more to do it, but it is a lot easier on the crew installing it and speeds things up a lot. Also, the pile of wood it is resting on will soon be the first floor of the addition.

Just an update on the hole they dug to tie the old slab into the new slab - they filled the hole with cement. I guess that's not really very exciting for anyone else.