2014

Return to Timeline.

Return to Table of Contents.

DSC04686sm
Here is the entire south facade timbered except the corners (the most miserable part). This is about March of 2014.
Balcony brackets are starting to be installed around the perimeter on the second and third floors for a walkout.
By the end of 2013 about two-thirds of the openings had been timbered. At this point Dean was stuck.
Of course, before he got the timbers, he had no idea how he would transition from steel to windows.
However, to put the windows in, the underwindow treatment and trim must be previously installed.
Then, miraculously, there appeared from Krupp in Germany (at Becker Metals) hundreds of 4' x 10' stainless steel sheets.

DSC04440sm
Here is an image of the reinforcing used to connect the timbers to each other.
Later, after Dean had burned through his inventory of several hundred, the generous people at B-Line made many extras available for free.
Here can be seen the transition from stone to steel to wood. rest assured there is plenty of tar between each layer.

DSC05240sm
Here are approximately one hundred and twenty sheets of 4' x 10' stainless steel.
It is one-sixteenth of an inch thick. It is a 400 series stainless. That is high chromium, low nickel, hardened material.
It is mildly oxidizable against acids and so forth. It is used for stainless steel commercial kitchen appliances and surfaces.
This consisted of two trailer loads of sixty sheets each. Each sheet weighs about one hundred and forty pounds.

DSC05245sm
This stuff is miserable to work with. It is the same material that is used for kitchen knives, so it can be imagined how durable and tough it is.
It requires a carborundum wheel cutting at 6500 rpm and that is a dubious process at best. See the nubbin of one remaining on the grinder.
Dean has burned through about thirty of these so far and has another thirty to go.
It's a screamer, so hearing protection is necessary if Beethoven is to be a component of old age and eye protection a given.
If one of the cutting blades disinigrates at 6500 rpm (four have so far), it could put out an eye or sever a jugular in a heartbeat.

DSC05246sm
Here is an example of the under the window treatment along with some earthquake collars awaiting installation on the interior columns.
It is affixed to the 6" x 8" interior timbers via stainless steel lag bolts (this is another item Dean was forced to buy due to the 1000's used).
This sheet of indestructible stainless steel affixed to these massive timbers imparts a strength to the building that conceivavbly doubles it.
There is enough stainless steel to skin the panels inside and out. Sort of the fashionable factory look.
Il est le Centre de Georges Pompidou en Paris n'est pas? Une image d'industrielle ici? (Excusez-moi s'il vous plait.)
Quatsch! Diese ist nicht Franzosisch Baustellung. Sind echte Deutsche Typen. Stark mit Eisen, Beton, Rostfrei und Holz. (Enschuldigung).
Notice the waterspots, fingerprints and smudges. These will all wash off (later please).
Installing these 140 pound sheets up three storeys ate up the rest of 2014.

Go to 2015.

Return to Timeline.