Capitol Hill Home Cantilevered

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An older gentleman owns this fine old Capitol Hill home in Seattle.  Many homes in this neighborhood are over 100 years old, and are getting to be a little creaky, as may happen to us all.  The home is a little unusual in that the rear section of the upper floor cantilevers about 10 feet past the lower floor exterior wall, and is supported by posts.

The floors of this upper floor cantilevered section sloped down towards the rear wall.  The owner had lived with this condition for many years, but decided to consider a fix, as a part of a bathroom remodel upstairs.  My inspection revealed a number of minor problems, including some settlement of existing footings, strange post configurations, and just a bit of dry rot.  I met with the owner and his contractor, and was able to describe to them an appropriate way to correct these small problems.

 

Erosion Control On The Hillside

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Even the rich sometimes need a little help from us.  This poor fellow’s pool, overlooking Puget Sound, was in danger of sliding down the hillside.  The soil supporting the patio around the pool was eroding away, and cracks beginning to form.  The problem was that the yard had been built up too high, adding weight to the soil of the steep hillside just to the west of the pool.  We were able to suggest repairs that would take care of the problem.  The solution involved increasing and improving the erosion control on the hillside, as well as additional support for the slab, combined with tiebacks into the hillside, to stabilize the pool structure and keep it from sliding.

Now the 2 million dollar view is safe.

Charm Of The Houseboat

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I think most of us city dwellers have fantasized about living on a houseboat.  It is a scarce and limited resource, and strictly controlled by the Seattle ordinances.  I have been lucky enough to experience living aboard one, if only briefly.  I (and CSES) have also been involved in the design and construction of a dozen or so houseboats.  A houseboat is truly a different sort of structure.  Typically, the houses are built on top of wood supports (‘stringers’) that are attached with long lag screws to a bundle of logs, which keep the whole thing floating.  This houseboat is no different.

As you can see, the houseboat is currently in pretty poor condition, peeling paint, dry rot deterioration, and the like.  Many similar houses are being fixed up as they come on the market – often a long time inhabitant passes away, and makes their home available.  So, we are in process of making it livable again.

One problem to be dealt with is the logs themselves.  As we all know, floating logs eventually become saturated with water – ‘waterlogged.’  This is remedied, generally, by adding floatation below the logs, rather than replacing the logs.  In the past styrofoam blocks have been used, but these were banned some years back, because they tended to break down, leaving quantities of styrofoam pellets floating around in Lake Union.  Now, plastic barrels are generally used.  They are submerged while partially full (for obvious reasons) then the water is pumped out to increase their buoyancy.

The new owner is trying to preserve some of the charm of the houseboat.  She had never lived on one, and is looking forward to a new experience.  We will keep you posted on the progress.

 

Letter To The Landlord

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Some landlords can be hard to convince to pay for upgrades – or even to fix what is broken!  A contractor was called after extensive dry-rot deterioration was discovered.  He was balking at the repairs, even though a couple of families were put in harm’s way by deteriorating framing.  CSES (to the rescue) made the inspection and wrote a letter to the landlord that could not be ignored.  The repairs that were needed got done.

Continuous Cantilevers

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Remodels can be enlightening.  This fellow owns a 60s style home, you know, exposed 4×12 wood beams, lots of odd shaped windows, big overhangs and cantilevered beams.  Anyway, the question was, how to remove an exterior “privacy wall” that was built between two 4×4 posts.  The posts extended from the deck below, to the ends of cantilevered beams.  It looks as though the posts are supporting the ends of the cantilevered roof overhang beams, and the owner wanted to know how he could support the overhang if he removed both the wall and the posts.  He had proposed an elaborate system of new beams and posts.

When I saw the assembly, it took me a little bit to realize that the posts were there not to support the roof, but to support the wall!   Without the posts, the top of the wall would have no support, and could be pushed over by a gentle breeze or a guest who has had one to many.

So, I recommended checking first to assure that the roof beams were in fact continuous cantilevers.  If so, the posts and wall could be removed without providing any additional new structure.

This was an easy one.  However, don’t try this yourself – call me.

Damage By Plumbers

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Plumbers in general do their job well, and can be a boon to you when something is flooding or stopped up.  Or, I suppose, if you want your plumbing to be improved, more modern…  However, they must typically be supervised, or you might find you require repairs to some of your floor joists or wall studs.

Plumbers are infamous for cutting away such structure willy-nilly in order to make room for their pipes and fixtures.  It is a constant problem, and I have seen some very extensive damage by plumbers which compromised the safety of the floors we might have to walk on.  Such was the case with this family.

When the new bathroom was inspected by the local building department, the inspector was, shall we say, appalled, and called for a structural engineer (my type of superhero) to remedy the damage.  Here is an excerpt from the report CSES prepared, along with the details and calculations for the repairs:

            “Large (roughly 6”x6”) notches are cut through some joists to accommodate 4” diameter PVC drain pipes.  These notches have damaged the floor joists significantly, and this condition must be repaired.  
            Hand-drawn details (pages R1, R2, R3) showing both of these conditions are included with this letter, and indicate the nail plates needed for the smaller notches, and the method of repair for the larger notches.  Once these repairs are completed, the serviceability of the damaged floor joists will have been restored to an acceptable state.”

In the end, though, the floor was repaired so that no one would fall through.

Removing Fireplace Monstrosities

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Some of you bloggers out there may live in a house built during the 1950s to 1970s. A few of those houses have an ugly, awful gigantic brick masonry fireplace, that probably dominates your main living space, and makes any kind of decorating difficult. This was a fad that I still have not figured out – perhaps it had to do with the popularity of wood fires for heat, which back then we thought of as natural. Of course, we learned that the regular use of such fireplaces actually increases air pollution and leads to a hazy particulate fog over your neighborhood. When I bought my home, it was heated by such a monster, as did many of my neighbors – we all soon got rid of those, and the air cleared…

CSES can help you with removing fireplace monstrosities. One cannot simply pull them down, often, because they are frequently used to hold up a part of the floor or roof framing. This young couple wanted a nice, open space to live their life in. They consulted with me to find out how to do that. Every home is different, but this was a fairly easy one.

Call us. We can help bring light and space into your living room.

Narrow Homes In Seattle

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More and more, new homes constructed in Seattle are of the narrow type. Typically, a developer will buy several older, run-down homes, which are often on larger lots. They will then revise the lot lines and build three homes where there might previously have been two. Now, some of you may think it is a shame, and somehow not karmically beneficial not to preserve every old house as part of Seattle’s charm. But what goes in are much nicer homes, more architectural and appealing, and I believe they contribute to the sense of neighborhood and pride of ownership. They are single family homes, not townhouses or apartments.

The City of Seattle has adopted a policy in certain neighborhoods of increasing density, to accommodate those of us that want to live in the city, in a house, but cannot afford the larger homes typical to Capitol Hill or Queen Anne. Of course, it also has the benefit of increasing the property tax base, which helps to maintain city services without an increase in property taxes. So, beneficial all around.

This young couple’s home is of that sort. Like many homeowners, the struggled to afford their house some years ago, and finally pulled themselves up to a place where they have a bit more disposable income. As you may see, their expansive interior space is made less attractive by the short and largely useless length of wall, with a strange post extending to the vaulted ceiling. They wanted to eliminate both, but needed to verify that is was safe to remove the post. After a short site visit, I was able to confirm that the post does not support the roof, and in fact was present only to support the wall! So, they were able to remove the entire assembly, and make a lovely kitchen island in its place.

Converting A Basement To Recording Studio

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Converting A Basement

Converting A Basement To A Recording Studio

A remodeling contractor we know often brings us small bits of design work. Typically he requires only a short site visit, some advice, perhaps a few calculations, and something to show the building department that what he wants to do is feasible and conforms to the current building codes. I enjoy this sort of thing, I get from my desk to take a little drive, help him out, and even make a little money.

This homeowner was in process of converting a basement into a recording studio. There is a lot of that going around these days, since the cost of the necessary equipment continues to decline, and more and more people want to exercise their creative muscles. This small project involved removing a bearing wall (to be replaced by a wood beam) and providing a few windows in another wall.

A simple and enjoyable job.

College Structural Drawings

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Old College Campus Building

Old College Campus Building

The building you see here is part of a local college campus. The buildings are maybe 40 or 50 years old, and very little is available in the way of recorded structural drawings. Luckily, in this case, pretty much everything we needed to know is visible and accessible, even without those drawings. The task at hand is the replacement of old, inefficient HVAC units with newer, greener, more energy efficient models. The problem was, the new units are heavier by a good margin. We had to verify that the existing roof structure is strong enough to support the increased weight.

No problem, though, we just visit the site, take our measurements, make our calculations, and tell the contractor what he needs to do. Just another day in the life an engineer.

Excess Weight On Roof Structure