2013

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On Dean's 60th birthday he spent the day helping Bruce from American Timber, dismantle a Sears kit-house post World War II.
It was all enameled metal and bolted together. Pretty neat.
At the same time, American Timber wrecked the buildings at O'Neil Lumber in East St. Louis.
From there Dean salvaged a tractor-trailer load of treated lumber for his help on the Sears house.
These were pressure-treated 6" x 8" timbers 22 feet long.
Again no pictures. The work was so arduous and the weather so miserable, photos were not the priority Above is the day in the life of a goose.

This is the stone wall from the interior, lined with concrete and concrete-filled concrete blocks.
After the timbers were safely tucked into storage, the first part of 2013 was spent tidying up the last of the wall (still not finished).
The bar joists from the famous "bar-joist adventure" are laid here to create a temporary floor.

That May we lost "the chief cook and bottle washer" (her words).
A few other attributes contributed by Dean were added to her stone.
The summer of 2013 was spent dealing with the problems of her estate.

Here is an an example of the joinery necessary for the installation of the 6" x 8" treated timbers.
Dean began the timber work in September of 2013.
It was a problem, as these timbers were the old-style treatment of autoclaving at high pressure and temperature a cocktail of copper and arsenic.
For sawing, respirators had to be worn, and sawdust vacuumed and prevented from becoming airborne.
Anyplace there was sawing and sawdust became unusable for vegetable gardening as the arsenic could be taken up by the roots.
Therefore, it was constrained to an area directly adjacent to the windmill. All scraps and collected sawdust had to go to the landfill.
Skin contact had to be minimized and hands washed repeatedly.

Prior to receiving these timbers, Dean had no idea how he was going to affix the windows to the frame.
When the frame was free-standing, there was no question if a wind were blowing, how hard and from what direction.
The building would noticeably sway. When these timbers were bolted in, it was rock-solid rigid.
Each of the timers was tarred in place where it made contact with the steel.
The steel would draw moisture with temperature changes and the adjacent wood would hold in the moisture causing eventual rust.
Tarring them sealed the steel from moisture as did the paint. The tar is one of the few things required to be bought new.
Dean went through eight barrels of it (so far). and it is messy. Reminds Dean of B'rer rabbit.
Guess what removes it? Nothing. Except corn oil. Go figure. A helpful tip from Helpful Heloise.

The timbers were six inches wide and the space in the eight inch "H"-beams was seven inches.
Therefore they nested right in. To be attached, the steel beam had to be drilled and then the hole continued through the wood beam.
The thing coming out of the chuck that looks like a pipe is a 24" drill bit of 7/8" diameter. About $200 a pop.
Then, the entire apparatus was reversed and an opposing timber was put on the other half.
The original hole became the pilot hole to then drill all the way through. Tar was liberally applied on all contact surfaces
Some can be seen on the red beam in places it was not intended and sticky fingerprints are everywhere.
Then a piece of 3/4" continuous-threaded rod was put through the hole and tightened down.
It was mentioned earlier how "wavy" the steel framework was in a high wind. The timbers immediately solidified the structure.

Here is a south-facing view of a bay of the second and third floors. The reinforcing brackets have not yet been installed.
It is possible to see the grating inside which serves as a temporary floor. Later this will become exterior balcony deck.
It can be seen that the timbers were bolted in place and held by huge, old cast-iron washers one hundred years old.
See the red bar joist at an angle on top. Explanation follows.

Viewing the fiberglass 4" x 6" in the foreground, note this is to be the level of the roof.
Code in St. Clair County allows for thirty-five feet in height.
The original Pope's Cafeteria building from 1890 was with a flat roof.
However, in this modern age, a high roof above the shade of trees is an ideal and wise place to put solar panels.
In this photo can be seen the south facimg row of supports for the panels.
They are awaiting a zoning variance to be installed.
The flat roof will be a foam insularion topped by a rubber or metal sealed deck.
It will be about as thick as the fiberglass 4" x 6" and will rest where the fiberglass beam is. This may not be available recycled (duh).

As can be seen, these are each built onto a large (very large) movable hinge.
This allows the solar surface tilt to be adjusted to the optimal angle for the time of year and the angle of the sun and hence maximum power.
They peeling paint is a horror story of using excess materials.
This was from a consignment of about a dozen cans of red enamel barn paint by Moore. Didn't adhere worth a tinker's dam.
Now Dean must scamper all over the steel superstructure with a spray can of Rustoleum (Rising Sun Red) and do touch-up.
The Rustoleum is of excellent quality and has held up well in the year-long tests.

Here is a support fully angled as though to catch the winter sun.

These are individually raised and lowered in unison to achieve the derired angle
These are special galvanized acme-thread jacks with a tilt head for different angles.
Eventually it would be nice to replace these manual devices with powered screw jacks.
Same principle- just more amenable to Dean's old age.
The Rustoleum touch-up marks can be seen on the bar-joist.

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