Construction Project - Prep an I Beam

The deflection my 2nd floor joists meant that I needed to provide them some kind of support. The building codes and span tables only tell you the maximum span allowable for a given set of joist sizes and spacings. They don't say anything about how a floor should feel while walking on it.

I really didn't want to have to put a beam in - I've sistered joists, put in extra lvl beams, and put in longitudinal metal straping (like a suspender) along both sides of the doubled/tripled joists - but the sensation while walking on the second floor still wasn't right. 

I bought a 23 foot long W8x18; its 8" tall and weighs 18 pounds/ft.  I welded plates on the bottom of each end to facilitate bolting the columns to the beam, as well as welding short pieces of threaded rod so I can bolt a 2x4 wood nailing strip to the top of the beam. That lets me nail the joists to the top of the beam.

To raise it up, I will build 2 short walls on either side, and at each end, of the beam. Those walls can support a come along. I'll raise it slowly and block it off as I go up. Ultimately I can use two bottle jacks to finish putting it in position, then install the columns at each end.

Things, and attitudes, I learned more than 30(!) years ago make this possible.

 

At each end there is a continuous bead of weld on the underside of the plate.

Got it in with a little guidance from my neighbor

One of the columns will bear on the built up 2x12 beam at the top left of the above photo.  There is a window in the basement just below the position of that column requiring a much more substantial header, and there was no room to fit it above the window in the basement.  For the other end I'll have to put a small footing in the basement and bring a column up to the first floor level. A column on top of that will hold up that end of the beam.

Cooking with Spices + a Quick Video Tour of the House

I remember when I was in my early teens checking a book out from the library on how to make Indian Spice recipes. The ingredients were totally unknown to me, though I found many of them in the tiny McCormick spice jars at the local grocery store. Though, unsurprisingly, I could never make anything that tasted good to me.

I think it's been almost 20 years that I've been using spices like this. My goal was to be able to cook like a country grandma, from any part of the world and I've come close, not needing a recipe for most things. Primarily Indian, North African, Caribbean, Mexican, Middle East. I'd like to learn more, and no doubt a native would take issue with how I make things compared to their grandmothers, but I'm happy with the results.

The house is still a collection of partially finished projects. The farm work is all consuming (a good thing, I think) and I'm not all that interested in working on the house, even if I had time. Living here is like being on a long term camping trip. You have to change your perspective on a lot of things or you'll go nuts.

Hiring someone to do the work was difficult pre covid, now it's next to impossible. A perfect example of this is my grain bin. We are a couple years into it (including planning/procurement) and they finally pulled up with a truck to construct the forms for the concrete pad. They might start putting them up in the next few weeks. Everything takes a lot longer than you'd think, and ends up costing 50% more than the (non-binding) estimate. 

Photos of Repair/Construction Projects

 

A new roll up door in the side of the old machine shed

The electrical supplies I'll use to pipe/wire in the new LED lights in the new machine shed. Squirrels/mice chew through anything not covered in metal.

Machine Shed lights, 10,000 lumens each. ~ $25 per light. I'll swap out the flexible wire leads for greenfield metal cable.

My DIY design/build transport bracket for the PTO shaft on the 520 flail mower. This saves me from having to take the whole 90 lb shaft off every time I covert it to the road transport mode.

The New Pole Barn/Machine Shed is Done

 The part that I've hired out is finished. Next up is some wiring for power and light. Then I can move machines in. It's 50' x 80' x 18' wall height, primarily to fit my combine, which is ~ 15' tall.

 

A New Roof - Pump House Rehab #3

 The old one was falling in. I'll eventually replace the windows and doors, rewire it, then (maybe next yr) add some insulation so I can have a 3 season heated shop space. This year I'd like to add a big metal table with a vise so I have something to weld on.

 

Pump House Rehab - #1

The roof on the pump house has been ready to fall in for the last five years. It doesn't matter right now, as all we store in there is oil, grease, lube, but I want to be able to make a small welding area out of it. That means keeping the water out. Eventually I'll replace the windows and try to make it a spring, summer, fall space so I can work out there in all but the worst winter weather. Maybe put a wood stove in it.

Right now that's a long way off. Here's the before pictures.

I started moving things from the pump house into the machine shed today. I hope that work on the roof can start this coming week.

Machine Shed Going Up

It should be finished in about a week. It's 50' x 80' with 18' tall walls, which are needed so I can put my 15' tall combine inside.

I'd been taking pictures almost every day but when I uploaded them to my computer something went wrong and they're gone.

Cap A Buried Water Line

While grading the ground where the old silos and barn were, the previously plugged underground water line started to leak. I noticed a wet spot and started digging the next day, ultimately renting a small excavator to dig six feet down to expose the water line. One the line was exposed it was a relatively simple job to cut the old line and put a compression fitting on the end of the line to seal it up. I'll make note of the location so if I need to run a water line out that direction I can find it again.

The concrete box is a cache basin for the drain that came from the old dairy barn. It's no longer in use and so will be capped and buried.

Taking Down the Old Farmhouse Chimney

I'm using the Genie Z45/25 Boom Lift to safely take down chimney that's above the roof line. The part that remains below the roof line will be disassembled from inside the house using a scaffold.

The chimney consists of a concrete block exterior and a clay tile liner. The total length of the chimney is around 35 feet. A lot of material. We'll take it out and dump it in the old silo, which itself will ultimately be taken down and buried.

Repairing the Masonry Heater Firebox

Last winter was the first for my masonry heater.  While building, curing and using it I meticulously followed all the proper procedures.  I used it full out, meaning firing it as often as recommended, simply because it was an abnormally cold winter and my farmhouse is unfinished.

I knew that the mortar was cracking inside the firebox, but put off repairing it as I was occupied with running the farm. A couple of weeks ago I began to consider what should be done.  After an inspection showed the mortar in the firebox was crumbling, I called Smith-Sharpe Firebrick Supply in Minneapolis and asked an expert "What should I do?". He said I might have used a bad bag of mortar, doubtful in my opinion, but that something called "Greepatch 421" would be the best product to repoint the joints.

When building the firebox I used the refractory mortar that came with the "kit" I bought from Eric Moshier at Solid Rock Masonry. It was rated up to 2500º. The new stuff is rated at 3500º. Maybe that will help, even though my temps never got above 2000º. (That infrared heat thermometer sure is useful.)

(Click on any picture to make it bigger.)

I started repairing the wall on the right. I scraped about 3/8" out of all the existing joints with a tuckpointing trowel. The mortar, when it didn't pop right out, was surprisingly soft.

 I also removed and relaid the floor of the firebox. The grate that fits in the hole seen in the bottom of the firebox was badly damaged and in need of replacement.  The "owners manual" from Solid Rock Masonry states that the grate will need to be replaced every other year. I'm ahead of schedule.

The old grate was badly corroded and had a bow/bend in it of about 1/2".

With the sides done I relaid the floor.

I think, and a phone call to the firebrick company will clear this up, that the mortar will have to cure for at least two weeks. Meaning no fires, and then only small ones. This is unfortunate because we've already had two nights with temps below freezing. For the next few weeks it looks like temps will be 10-15 degrees below normal.

Masonry Heater is Done

My friend Andy came up from Chicago to lay the fieldstone I'd picked and prepped around the masonry heater.

Next spring I plan on applying a clear sealer to the heater so the the colors - blues, greens, yellows, reds, white, oranges, browns - of the stones "pop". You can get a sense of what that will look like by simply spraying the stones with water, which I did in the photos below.

(Click on any of the photos to make them bigger.)

The firebox side, showing the clean stone.

How the stone looks when wet.

Oven side, dry clean stone.

Oven side, wet stone.

 All these stones were handpicked from our fields. Even after pressure washing them it wasn't obvious what they'd ultimately look like. I'm really happy with how it's turned out. Thanks Andy!

There's still one big test to come - Does it work? Early signs are promising, as there's a nice draft from the chimney.

We finished about a week ago, and the mortar still needs to cure for another 10 days until I can start curing it with a series of small fires.  That'll take another week. Meaning I can't really use it to heat the house for a few more weeks.

Masonry Heater Progress

 Some of the smaller rocks that we've picked were dumped near the house earlier this summer. They still have a bit of dirt on them, which I'm now cleaning with our balky pressure washer. The motor surges and eventually dies.

The internet has a solution, which has worked, somewhat.

The idle (pilot/lo) circuit in the carb is gummed up. What happens is when the engine achieves the desired rpm's, the governor closes the throttle. At small partial throttle, the engine must run on the idle/transition jets. Since they're obstructed by varnish, it starves for fuel. Rpm's drop, the throttle opens, the engine now draws from the less obstructed main jet, rpm's recover, throttle closes, repeat ad nauseum.

2 choices. Remove the "main jet" from the carb and clean it again (special attention to drillings along the side of the jet), and poke out the idle circuit while you're in there..... Or:

Add "Sea Foam" to the tank at double the recommended ratio on the bottle. The stuff is good at removing varnish, and in a little while the washer should be happy again.

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 I still have a lot to do on the heater. Finish up the core, another 6 courses, then put the downdraft channels on either side. Next would be building the clay chimney, which is routed through the 6 ft long bench and 9 ft up to the ceiling where it transitions to a double wall metal chimney and goes through the second floor and the attic/roof.

Finally, the whole core/bench gets clad with the field stone. 

I was hoping to get a little help from my friend Andy. I'm not sure if he'll be able to do so. In either case it'll be tough to get it done in the next month given all the other stuff that I need to do.

 Wikipedia has a good entry on Masonry Heaters if you want to learn more.

Farmhouse Construction Update #9 - Foundation Stablilization

The block foundation under the north wall of the house was at the very early stages of failing.  Years (decades?) of water pouring alongside the foundation due to missing gutters and poorly graded soil had a lot to do with it.

I found a technique online that let me brace it from the inside, using steel beams. The other option was to excavate outside and either pour a new concrete wall alongside the existing, or simply rebuild it.

The wall had a slight bulge in the center, approximately 3/4" over 4 feet.  By anchoring the bottoms of the beams in the basement slab and lag screwing them to the joists overhead, I should be able to stabilize the wall.

Farmhouse Construction Update #8

I've been working on the north wall of the addition, which is where the kitchen (and my temporary bedroom is located).  I'm removing an old sliding patio door and putting a new window in its place. I'll also change the double casement window over the kitchen sink.  New 1" rigid insulation will go outside, then some new siding.

There was water damage from decades of minimal maintenance.  Basically water was getting where it wasn't supposed to be, leading to rotting wood which in turn attracted ants.  It wasn't as extensive as on the east part of the farmhouse, but I still had to brace up the floors and start cutting rotted wood out.

(Click on any image for a larger picture)

Things can take longer than I'd like. For example I thought I could install the window(s) in one day. Once I opened up the wall and had a look at the rot, I had to fix that. To date, I've worked three long days on this project. I still have to install the kitchen window, shore up the foundation with i beams, and put on the rigid insulation/siding.