I just wanted to mention one thing about rehabbing older buildings and that is you aren't ever sure what you are going to find until you start ripping things apart. One of the things we discovered is that our exterior masonry walls aren't exactly plumb. The rear east wall of the kitchen is an inch and a quarter lower than the rear west wall. The west is also about an inch or so out of plumb vertically. Obviously, this is a bit of problem when trying to install a new floor deck above. So our solution was to sister in our new 2x8 joists and at the highest points let the joists rest on the brick wall and then nail the joists to the existing 2x6 joists. We then levelled the joists which caused a gap between joist and the brick wall at points. We then went back around all of the new joists and packed non shrinking quick setting mortar under all of them to ensure that they have secure ledge to rest upon and won't settle over time.
I haven't yet mentioned the vertical plumb of the wall. When we get closer to installing and framing the new windows I will show how we dealt with this problem. It isn't really a structural problem per se. The issue is going to be an aesthetic one in that parts of the window sill on that wall are going to be bigger than others after the wall is furred out. However, we'll be able to hide that with window treatments.
What is "furring out" you ask? It is when you build a wall within a wall. So for example we have the exterior masonry wall of the bungalow. The interior will be "furred out" with either 2x4s or 2x2s to make the installation of mechanicals easier as well as to make room to insulate the house.
1 comment:
So, having lived in a slanty shanty you think you're now above a bowed bungalow?
Just you wait until I level your plumb-bob with my T-square!
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