Plumb Crooked

Let's say you are building a house and putting in a lot of steel beams. Let's say that one of the beams you put in is not exactly straight, like for example, this beam:



A closer look at the level shows the bubbles are way to the right, instead of in the middle where they should be.



The beam is leaning. The problem is that this beam is welded to two other beams that are welded and bolted to other beams and so on. What to do? The answer is surprisingly simple: gouge out the welds, take out the beam and weld it back in straight. We missed the gouging bit, but when we got there to check on progress, the welders were in full arc and making quite a ruckus. So first they welded the bottom of the beam,


and then the top of the crooked beam and, some of the other beams as well.



All of this was done under the watchful eye of the special welding inspector and his ultrasound machine to make sure the welds are up to snuff. If welding the posts once makes them strong, welding them a second time should make them even stronger. Basically the same idea as refried beans and twice-cooked potatoes. The second time makes it that much better. After all the welding and grinding and ultrasounding, we end up with a (Drum roll please ....) a perfectly straight beam:



of course, nothing involving this much gouging, grinding and blinding electrical arcs is entirely without pain and stoic as the post may be, it suffers quietly from the pain of bolt relocation.



I hope the welders mixed in a bit of Aspirin with the weld wire.

On the framing front, we have reached the top floor and the roof has gone on, but the waterproofing is not put down yet. The weather gods, perhaps sensing that their opportunity to mess with us is quickly slipping away, sent us a heavy rain shower last night and this morning, making it necessary to put a big blue shower cap on the whole house.



The shower cap helps, but water still gets through and between the constant grinding and welding of metal, the babble of different languages, and the water cascading down inside the building, it feels like I am in a scene from Blade Runner. Better keep an eye out for the replicants or at least make sure they get their cigarette breaks. No one wants cranky replicants on a job site.

All this framing has not extended to the stairwell yet and the 40 foot hole in the middle of the building is still a hole. Here's what it looks like from the top:



and from the bottom:



And this is how we get from floor to floor:





If we had a couple of more floors, we could do some bungee jumping in here, but 40 feet is just not enough to get any serious free fall time before hitting the concrete slab in the basement. The days of the hole appear to be numbered, however, since the stair templates (the large wooden sawtooth looking things on the bottom right side of this picture) herald the coming of the staircase. I am told that on future visits we will probably just walk up the stairs rather than climb wobbly ladders to get to the upper floor. Much more dignified, but where's the fun?



Next week: a sealed roof, posts for solar panels, and few more nips and tucks in the framing. We may also get to the plumbing.