Category: Basement Beam

The replacement of the saggy, rotten wooden beam with a new, level, straight steel I-beam on steel columns with new footings.

Painting the Beam

We put in the steel beam in the basement over two-and-a-half years ago. Our friend Mike, who got us the steel and helped us put it in, told us at the time that when the weather got warm we should paint it. We didn’t get around to doing that until now. For the record, I don’t recommend that.

Steel needs to be primed at a minimum to keep it from rusting and our basement is especially humid. Hopefully our new weeping system will help improve that but the beam developed some surface rust since we put it in. Since we’re planning to move into the basement and leave the concrete floor bare (stained and sealed) it makes sense to do any painting we can before the new floor goes in. Maybe not as much sense as painting it right away or anytime before we started the dig out, but more than waiting any longer.

I started with a thorough cleaning, using the air compressor nozzle, the shop vac, and a wet rag to get the accumulated dust and rust off. With that done I put on a coat of rust-inhibiting metal primer. I have a sprayer but with all the nooks and crannies between the joists I just used a brush. Cleaning actually took longer than priming, and as soon as it was done I wondered why I hadn’t done it a couple years ago.

Once that was done I should have put the top coat on right away. Instead I did all the masonry on the windows which involved making a bunch of dust with the angle grinder, so when I circled back several weeks later to finally do it, I had to wipe it down all over again. I brushed on two coats of high-gloss white metal paint and now my neck is sore, but the beam looks good. The plan is to paint the ceiling joists next and we will use the sprayer for that. I’m giving the paint a couple days to dry before I vacuum out the joist bays and throw a bunch more dust around; I don’t want it to stick to the beam.

Beam Project: Steel

Friday, Mike went to Suburban Welding and Steel and picked up the three pre-cut beam sections totaling about 45′ and one 20′-long piece of square tube steel to cut into columns. He has a big pickup with a rack on the back, so they were able to lower the steel onto the back with a crane. Total cost came to $1,083. Saturday morning I picked up some donuts and made some coffee and people started showing up. After a little bit of work getting the front basement window opened all the way and and the gate to swing wider, Mike got his truck angled up to the curb and we unloaded the first 384 lb, 16′ beam section. Predictable this was actually the last section we needed to put in, but the way they were loaded on the truck didn’t give us much choice. We fed it through the window and set it on a couple of ladders in the basement.

Old beam removed

Old beam removed

Next we started taking out sections of the old beam. We got a bit of a surprise when a couple of 2x4s in the ceiling for drywall nailing edges were pulled down with the beam. This was especially alarming because they nearly pulled down the gas pipe that ran under them! Fortunately the pipe didn’t rupture and we were able to remove the 2x4s and re-anchor the pipe to the ceiling. The rest of the beam came down without incident and the temporary wall showed no signs of any problem carrying the load.

Cutting the beam

Cutting the beam

There was a slight miscommunication about one of the beam measurements so Mike cut a couple of feet off, but better too long than too short. He has a fancy gas-powered saw for just such a purpose. Having someone that not only knows how to do the job, but has the tools necessary to do it was critical to us being able to tackle this ourselves. With the beams cut down we used the jack posts to hold them in place. Then Mike ran a string line from one end to the other to that we could line them up properly and get everything level with the hydraulic jacks.

Positioning the beam

Positioning the beam

We used clamps to hold the two beam sections together because it was slightly torqued. Then Mike used his arc welder to weld the beam sections together. Normally the separate sections are just bolted together with a steel plate, but this will be stronger and hold everything together better. Next up was the columns. Dean took a turn with the big saw and cut the columns.

Cutting the column

Cutting the column

The columns were a tiny bit too long, so I used the angle grinder to trim them down about an eighth inch. When we went to fit them again they were still too long, but it turned out one of my hydraulic jacks wasn’t quite holding pressure and the beam had just dropped slightly. We pumped it back into place and fitted the column in. Mike welded the columns into place, directly to the beam at the top and to a steel plate notched for the bolts at the bottom.

Dean and I tried our hand at arc welding on the base of one of the columns, which was a really interesting experience. There’s a strange balance between keeping the end of the stick from touching the weld so that a spark gap is created while still continuously pushing the stick in so that it is consumed. We used the rotary hammer to drill holes into the footing for the bolts and pounded them in, tightening them up so they were good and snug. It was done.

Finished beam

Finished beam

Today I took  down the temporary wall and got my first look at the basement completely opened up. I’ll still need to paint the beam so it doesn’t rust and Mike thinks I should put a column at either end since the ends of the beam are pocketed into the brick, which isn’t in terrific shape. At some point I’ll bring in a tuck pointer to clean up the brick foundation inside and out and we’ll see if that does it. Otherwise we’ll have a bit more steel work in our future. You can also see from the picture that I have a lot of cleaning to do!

Beam Project: Footings

Settle in kids, because this is a long post. First off, I finished leveling the back beam, despite one of the hydraulic jacks slowly losing pressure. I picked up another jack post since the back beam sagged in the middle and I wanted to prop it up with the jack. I also removed the last of the stud wall under the beam, meaning it was now completely supported by the jack posts and hydraulic jacks. That in itself felt like an accomplishment. Then I finished building the temporary support wall, making it officially a pain in the ass to do laundry.

Temporary wall

Temporary wall

With these preparations complete, last weekend Eriq came down and together we cut the concrete floor using a circular saw with a masonry blade. The plan was to get the two holes completely dug out in preparation for pouring the new concrete footings. Unfortunately once we had the concrete floor out we found old stone footings under the floor in both locations.

Original footing

Original footing

Removing these footings proved challenging and we wound up spending the rest of the afternoon prying them out of the holes. The task was made more difficult because all of the ground under the house seems to be solid clay. Fortunately that means the holes stayed nice and straight and didn’t cave in, but digging in it was especially challenging. Initially we were trying to break up the old footings, but stone proved harder than concrete and we ran to Home Depot to get a longer bit for the rotary hammer, hoping to drill holes through it and then break it into chunks. Once we drilled the holes we noticed the whole thing was moving and realized we could pull it out in one piece.

Stone footing

Stone footing

The second one we didn’t bother drilling holes in and just pulled it out. The stone footings were limestone but one of them had a sandstone cap on it, perhaps to help manage drainage. The strange thing is that the floor was poured over these, so whatever columns had originally sat on these were long gone. I planned to dig the rest of the holes during the week, but I ran out of time since I also had to pick up concrete.

The footings specs are 30″x30″x18″, and since there are two, that wound up being thirty-two 80lb bags of 5000 psi concrete, plus I bought a couple extra just in case. Combining the limits of the trunk of the car with the $5 off $50 purchase coupons we had meant we had to break it into several trips. All told we spent around $150 on concrete. I spent Friday evening and Saturday morning digging the footings out, though when my friend Mike showed up with the concrete mixer he said they weren’t wide enough at the bottom. I had failed to employ measuring tape technology to confirm the holes didn’t taper as they went down, so it took us a couple more hours to get the holes right.

Measured holes

Measured holes

Next Mike made up the rebar. Because he does road construction he skipped the regular method of just floating in rebar as you go and built rebar cages to go into the footings, set on concrete blocks to keep them a couple of inches off the bottom. Assembling these went pretty quickly, but it was after we placed them and remeasured that he decided we needed to make the holes deeper so there would be enough concrete over the top of the rebar.

Rebar cage

Rebar cage

That meant we had to take them back out and spend more time digging out the holes, adding to the already massive pile of clay in the back yard that we took out in five gallon buckets. We’ll need to figure out where and how to get rid of that. My initial plan of just spreading it around in the yard was hatched before I realized it was all clay and not soil.

Footing depth

Footing depth

We verified our depth and placed nails at the edge to keep track of how high the concrete needed to be and to make sure it was level. I determined the depth to dig by starting with the outside wall footings. The bottom of the outside wall footing is the maximum we can eventually dig down the floor without underpinning. Then we’ll add a layer of stone and rigid foam to insulate the floor, which will have radiant heating. The bottom of the floor is the top of the column footing, so from there we measured down 18 inches. The laser level has proved invaluable for nearly every step of the process. I think even if I only bought it for this one project it would have been worth it, but I know it will be handy when we do the subfloor, the cabinets… everything really. I put it in the corner and from there had a level line that reached the corner outside wall footing we had dug out as well as the two column footings we were currently digging, making it easy to keep track of our depth given the fact the floor isn’t level at all.

Filling with concrete

Filling with concrete

We discovered the garden hose in the garage was full of ice and we couldn’t use it without waiting for it to thaw so we ran to Home Depot and picked up another one. Then we found the outside spigot was frozen and had to hook up to the faucet on the first floor. Finally we were able to start the concrete operation. Mike mixed up the bags in the portable mixer while I brought bags from the garage and took buckets into the basement. He added portland cement to the mix in order to get a better consistency, about three cups per bag. As we were finishing the first footing it was looking like we might be shy on concrete but in the end we had two bags left over, exactly the overage I had calculated.

Finished footing

Finished footing

Mike used his concrete vibrator to remove any air pockets and even out the consistency and then troweled off the surface to make it smooth. It certainly doesn’t need to be perfect since these will be covered when we put in the floor, but they look nice just the same. This picture also gives you an idea of how much ceiling height we’ll be gaining. The new floor will be four inches thick on top of the footing, so it’ll be about six inches lower than it is now. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s the difference between having to duck under the beam for me at 6’2″ and being able to stand up straight for Sarah’s brother who’s 6’8″.

Plastic cover

Plastic cover

We put some plastic on top of the concrete to help it cure more slowly. It needs seven days to cure, but it will be longer than that before we put the new columns on them. Swapping the wooden beam for the new steel beam and installing the columns is probably about a month out since we need to coordinate a lot of people to come and assist.

Dirt pile

Dirt pile

Once we had finished I spent the whole evening yesterday just sitting on the couch. I’m really sore after digging the holes, carrying out the dirt, and then carrying in all the concrete, and I’m sure Mike is too, but we’ve reached a milestone we’ve been working toward for a while. It feels really good to have something to show for all the work and finally have a piece (okay, two pieces) of the new house in place. The only other thing in the entire house that is the “end product” is the electric service, and we didn’t do that ourselves, so this is kind of a first for us. We’d both like to extend a big thanks to both Eriq and Mike for all their help with the footings.

Beam Project: Front to Back

With the middle beam level and the support wall built I moved on to the front. The good news is that this beam was already level, but there was a rotted column and some of the old wall studs to be removed. This required some shell game action. First I lowered the hydraulic jack from its position in the middle beam, enjoying the awesome sounds of the temporary wall taking on the load. Then I moved it to the front of the back beam and took the load off the jack post there. Next I moved the jack post to the front beam next to the column. Confused?

Second column removed

Basically I use the hydraulic jacks to level things and the jack posts to hold them there, but I needed the column from the front in order to use my second hydraulic jack. In order to take out the column I needed to get the load off of it by putting in a jack post, and in order to move the jack post I needed to take the load off of it by moving the other hydraulic jack. I don’t know if that makes more sense or not. Regardless, after rearranging things I pried the other rotted column out and cut it down just like I had with the first one. Then I got out the second hydraulic jack, four more steel plates, and I put it in position at the back of the back beam.

Back beam

Once the two hydraulic jacks had taken the load off the remaining studs, I started removing them. There’s now only one other section of studs left in the wall and one 4×4 post that was pretending it could support the house. The back beam needs to rise between a quarter and a half inch at either end, and as before I’m going slowly rather than doing it all at once.

Support wall with cross bracing

In the mean time I added the cross bracing and put up the temporary wall for the front beam. I put the wall on the far side of the beam because I’ll probably be bringing in the new steel beams through the front basement window. Otherwise I’d have to bring them all the way from the alley which is quite a bit further. Depending on how many studs we have left I may put in additional support sections to either side as I need them. I want to make sure that the house is properly supported so that it doesn’t undo all my leveling when we swap beams.

Beam Project: Temporary Wall

Temporary wall

There are three segments to the wood beam in the basement, so for our purposes we’ll say front, middle, and back. I started work on the middle section because it was the lowest and I wanted to bring it to the same level as the other two. As of last weekend, the beam was as close to level as was feasible, given that the joists themselves aren’t exactly level in the outside walls, nor of the same thickness from one end to the other. I also discovered the importance of measuring level from the top of the floor joist rather than the bottom.

Once the beam was where it needed to be, we started building temporary wall sections. These are standard 2x4s with bottom and top plates. The studs are aligned with the floor joists so that there is even support and as little movement as possible once the existing beam is removed. I started out using the scrap lumber we had saved from the basement demo. Unfortunately nearly all of these studs were too short due to rot and rats chewing a raceway through the wall. I cut them down to 5′ lengths and built a second tier with short cripple studs, then put a cross brace across it. After it was all assembled and in place, I decided it wasn’t going to work.

The problem was partly that the salvaged studs were a bit wonky and uneven and partly that even with the cross bracing I was concerned it was going to buckle if the weight of the house was put on it. Given the importance of the wall in supporting the house while the beam is replaced, we decided to play it safe and get new studs. We can always reuse these down the road, so it shouldn’t add any additional waste to the project and it only cost about $100. That seemed like a small price to pay to keep the house from collapsing.

Temporary Wall Under Joists

We rebuilt the temporary wall along the length of the middle beam. I also built a segment on the opposite side where the joists were cut to provide support for that section. I still need to add cross bracing to ensure it’s stable. I’ll wind up using the salvaged lengths I cut down for the top and bottom plates as well as the cross bracing.