First Floor Beam: Temporary Wall

First Floor Beam
Temporary wall
Temporary wall

I’m getting behind on my blog updates! After my failed attempt to move the load bearing wall, I rounded up enough salvaged lumber to build a temporary wall. When I took down the temporary wall in the basement, I just knocked the sections of boards apart, leaving all of the nails in the sill and top plates. At the time it was simple laziness, but it paid off in spades because I was able to just line up the studs and pound the boards together with a hammer. Everything was already spaced roughly 16″ on center, so I just needed to find the matching top and bottom plates and then tilt up the sections and hammer them into place.

Between two walls
Between two walls

I put together about two thirds of the temporary wall, assembling each roughly four-foot section, tipping it up, and then pounding it into place with a sledge hammer. When I made the basement wall I carefully measured the distance from the floor to the underside of the joist and either shimmed or cut my studs down accordingly. This time I cut all the studs to the same length and just pounded on it until it was straight. It wasn’t as precise, but it went much more quickly. Everything is pretty snug without any really loose sections, so it worked out. Dean helped me put the last sections in place. The beam is on order (more about that in another post), so soon enough we can get that in.

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