Steel beam header

center supporting wall on the opposite side of the house

The wall between the living room and bedroom is a supporting wall. A supporting wall can not be removed at will, or the house is at risk of collapse.  The load of the structure of the house must be transferred to other means of support. The removed wall must be supported with temporary removable support in order to be replaced with an adequate header. After rebuilding the header will carry the load of the house previously supported by the supporting wall. In this case a steel beam will be put in in place of a wooden header. It had greater efficacy financially and structurally. The steel beam will required but two upright supports in addition to being carried by the outside walls of the house. 

Stripped wall between living room and former bedroom

Steel beam set in place supporting house

Saddle welded to the steel beam to secure its position

post supports the steel beam

This project was started by planning a substitute temporary support to replace the wall. It was done by propping up the wall with 2x4 studs. For a short time, an hour or so, studs were wedged in between the floor and the ceiling joists next to the existing wall as the temporary support. The wall was then removed and the steel beam was lifted into place. The steel beam is supported by posts with saddles welded onto them. The beam sits in the saddle on the posts, and the saddle is welded to the beam. This is the alternative system for replacement of the supporting wall. Do not try this yourself! There are specific load calculations that must be done by an expert to insure that the load will be carried adequately.

Gutta House, Gut job, Gutted Out, Complete House Renovation

All on the first floor has been gutted out. All electrical has been soaked and had to be removed. The main electrical box was not in that area and was preserved.


Nothing is left on the first floor, it is bare to the dirt of the ground.  The blown in insulation has been completely removed.  The fiberglass bats have been removed, all flooring in the home has been removed and discarded.  Wind roared through the space for about two months because the crawl space hatch was left open to the inside of the house by the demolition contractors. It was exposed to the elements because of the removal of the floors which went right down to the removal of the sub-floor.

All upright interior walls will be removed. This space is going to be restored by creating an open floor plan. One bedroom will be reconstructed. It will be moved to the opposite side of the downstairs floor of the home. The bedroom-livingroom wall is being moved to create clear view of the body of water behind the home. The home will have a clear wide broad water view of a cove that opens onto Tangier Sound of the Chesapeake Bay. Moving the bedroom forward will free the back walls for installation of more windows to see the beautiful view.

Disaster pix...yuck, Renovation needed

Bathroom spewed with iron sediment from burst hot water piping

Iron sediment dripping down walls from flooded floors above

Ceiling and floor damage..it all had to go

Note the footprints in the water soaked carpeting

soaked ceiling tiles dropped to the floor below

Bathroom below flooded by burst pipe upstairs

Before and After, In the beginning....

Before: the burst pipes disaster

We did have a beautiful cottage. Everything was clean and perfect. We worked tirelessly to save the money to buy it, and very obsessively to make it perfect, clean and up to date. It was a perfect residence for escaping the world and tuning into nature and the water. It was bright, had beautiful water views and beautiful waterfront location in a lovely community of delightful neighbors. Then the damned nut on the hot water faucet split open and ruined the whole house while we were away to New York on vacation. Nightmares in day time soon prevailed. I will record what is happening here for our friends and family. It is really unbelieveable to anyone who knows the place and knows us, to think it has come to what it is right now. We might as well have been located in hurricane Katrina, when you look at what the burst pipe wrought. http://housedamagephotos.blogspot.com/

Here our story and photos begin. They will go on, and the tale will go on while the whole reconstruction and demolition continues. Drama, that's all I can say to describe it. Lots of drama.

We entered through the kitchen door, on the left is what it looked like when we left for vacation. Below is what we found when we came in the kitchen door.

After:ceiling on floor, inches of water, iron sediment from the hot water tank which emptied after the pipe burst

The floors are flooded and the ceiling is disintergrated onto the floor. It soaked and then collapsed crashing onto the floor below.  As I said, lots of drama.... 

Kitchen flooded with water seeped from flooded bathroom abov,e resulting from a bust water pipe

Burst Pipes, Disaster History

Bathroom covered with iron sediment after pipe burst emptying hot water tank contents onto bathroom 

 It is amazing how much one broken plastic nut can cause. That is the story with this mess. The plastic nut on the hot water line into the upstairs bathroom faucet caused all of this. So much for plastic nuts, and two story houses.

The pictures tell the story of the resulting damage. Hopefully as time goes on, and the goal here is six months, it will all come back together somehow. I am going to post the distaster photos in all their glory

They will progress from what we found when we returned from vacation to recovery, the photos will tell the story of the deconstruction and reconstruction of the house.

I hope that shortly it will reverse and I will post pictures of the rebuilding. The jury is out on that part. This blog is the story in pictures!
http://housedamagephotos.blogspot.com/

This mess seeped its way from the top of the house to the bottom: the house was gutted as a result of this burst plumbing. Check out my other postings at http://housedamagephotos.blogspot.com/