As you know we are taking all of the walls out of the main floor to make it completely open concept. That means we need a big beam running the length of the house. The beam will be 16 inches deep since we only want one post in the middle of the house. Here is the lumber being used for the beam:
In order to put in the beam two temporary support walls have to be built on the main floor and in the basement. The walls are built on either side of where the beam will be. It’s a big job.
Here are the temporary walls on the main floor:
And here are the temporary walls in the basement:
We’re thinking of using the temporary wall that was built in the basement as an opportunity to extend the finished area of the basement. Kirk’s thinking of tackling that project with his friends later on since it’s a relatively easy project.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Trang // Jan 16, 2008 at 5:40 am
Hey guys! I just bought a older home 2 weeks ago and going through a similar process. GOOD LUCK to the both of us!
I was just wondering. The temp. walls built in the basement are you planning to reuse them as framing for the unfinished part of the walls?
2 anke // Jan 17, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Very exciting! Have you gone through a reno before?
Yes, we are going to re-use the wood from the temp walls in the basement . We currently have it stored as we probably won’t get to the basement for a while!
3 Michelle // Oct 2, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Love the blog you two. You are an inspiration. Just wondering if you hired an engineer to put the beam in? We want to take a wall out, but are not sure if it is load bearing. Do you have a structural engineer you can recommend?
4 anke // Oct 5, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Thanks Michelle. Our contractor arranged for a structural engineer to come in and assess our home so unfortunately we don’t have his name.
5 TipTop Flooring // Oct 25, 2010 at 12:37 pm
The floor renovation is not always an easy project, but the result is worth all the effort spent on making the best.
Leave a Comment