Friday, June 12, 2009

How Many Pounds of Steel Does It Take...

You might be wondering (but probably not), "Rose, how many pounds of steel beams and counterweights does it take to support the DG house while a load-bearing wall is removed?"  Funny you should ask!  In fact, it takes 11,000 pounds of steel and 9,000 pounds of counterweights to properly support then very carefully and ever so slightly lift up the house to install a new support beam.  

On Wednesday, the exterior wall in the dining room that abuts the dining room expansion was removed.  In place of that load-bearing wall, a new support beam was added to hold up the house.  In the time between when the wall was removed and the beam was installed, the house was held up by scaffolding and very slightly lifted using a series of counterweights.  Basically, there was a whole lot of physics being applied in the house on Wednesday.  I've taken some pictures of the process to give you a sense of what it takes to support then raise the house a few millimeters while a wall is being removed. 

What's missing in this picture?


Support scaffolding in the dining room.


Scaffolding and counterweights (bottom of picture) in a second floor student room.


Some of the steel beams and weights before being installed.  If you're curious, it took 16 guys to carry the 20,000 pounds of materials into the house.  

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