Day 487: Beam Me Up, Scotty!

If only the contractor's name was Scotty. Sadly, we don't choose contractors based on the potential corniness of puns to their work. Nevertheless, a not-named-Scotty contractor was here on Thursday to transform the old kitchen-dining room wall into a beam. Mother Nature must have known how much we wanted to enjoy the new opening because we were blessed with a seriously gorgeous weekend of bright sunshine and temperatures in the low twenties. Bathed in light flooding in from all sides, here she is:

Hello, beam! Hello, giant opening!

For comparison's sake, here are some pre- and post-beam photos shot from roughly the same spot:

From the north west corner of the kitchen...

...south-facing windows now in full view.

From the living room looking into the dining room...

...now looking into the kitchen too!

From the kitchen sink...

...all the way into the dining room.

The contractor and his partner in crime arrived before 8 and they were done by 5. I tried to stay out of the way as much as possible so I only got a few photos mid-day after they had built the temporary bearing supports and taken down the old wall.

Contractor putting blocks in place for the post.

Temporary bearing walls up and old wall down.

We were particularly concerned about preserving the plaster ceiling in the dining room and also keeping the crown moulding, if possible. The contractor did a great job - no damage at all to the ceiling and the moulding is in one piece waiting for new drywall to be put in behind it.

Foam sill plate gasket protects the ceiling plaster from damage.

The beam is made of four 2x12 SPF boards that are 13' in length. We could have gone with an engineered wood LVL (laminated veneer lumber) beam, which would have been slimmer than our 6" wide 4-ply beam, but the price difference was significant and we've got relatively high ceilings (8'7") so a bulkier beam won't be an infringement.

Four 2x12 boards = beam holding up a quarter of our house.

One might think that a beam offer less support than a wall of evenly spaced studs under a 2x4 top plate. In our case, the beam might actually mean more security because that old 2x4 top plate was barely wide enough to sit under both sets of joists. Since the beam is 6" wide, more of the kitchen-side joists are covered. This photo of the single joist in the kitchen not affected by the beam will demonstrate.

Less than 1" of overlap between the joist and the old top plate. You can see how the beam adds an extra 2" of space to overlap under the kitchen-side joists.

The house had been standing since 1930 with those joists as they were and they weren't all quite as bad as the one pictured. That said, it's nice to feel like we may actually be improving the structure rather than compromising it. (As the non-civil engineer in this relationship, note my use of the word "feel" rather than "know"...)

The beam is supported by posts (aka trimmers) on either end made of 2x6 boards: four at one end and three at the other. At the end with three boards, they also put in something like a bottom plate that extends over a second joist underneath. These posts are positioned over the concrete support wall spanning the length of the basement (with some blocks added in the joist space between the wall and trimmer).

The trimmer and chase on the back wall.

You'll notice that there are a few more boards around than just the beam and posts. On the back wall, we asked the contractor to build in the aforementioned chase and soffit that will house ductwork and plumbing. At the other end, we requested that a few extra studs be added so we would have a place to put the dining light switch and outlet.

The post lines up with the half wall and "beam" positioned between the living and dining room.

This is by far the most drastic change made to any space in the house thus far. Having lived with it for just four days, we're already seeing the benefits of increased light in all three rooms on the main floor and hearing the benefits of inter-room conversations at lady-like volumes. Hey there, open concept... I think we're going to like you...