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The Extension
The Porch Roof
So i was able to find a pile of 1x1 angle steel in ~4ft lengths for less than retail price, and figured a couple minutes with the arc welder would put them back together. The porch needed a roof, and i was very peeved by carpenter bees boring in to make nests, even in pressure treated wood. And wood warps, badly. I once needed 10 visegrips and a few pipe clamps to hold
Warped wood:
The joists. I made up a jig to hold the pieces in place, then welded them up. After welding, i painted them with a rust inhibiting primer, at least that is what the can of the paint alleges. Jigs are not to be underestimated. These views are pre-tin.
In this pic, you can make out the rebar jutting from the concrete walls. I set those in about 4ft apart, across the entire front as i poured the walls. Once the 2x2 steel ledge is in place to hold the joists, i heated the rebar with torch while running water over the wall onto the rebar where it enters the concrete. No concrete spalled. The bend is done in a loose way so the steel can expand with summer heat independantly of the concrete wall, which remains in shade. The steel ledge and the joists are held ridgidly in place horizontally at only the center of the porch. A few dry days later, i liberally applied rust preventative paint. The cement columns also have rebar sticking up from them, and this is used to hold up/down the 2x2 steel ledge about 2ft in from the edge of the roof. You can see the temporary fitup on the
I wanted a better method of securing the 5-V tin than driving a nail in, or using expensive rubber washered screws. This is what i came up with. It's a jig to bend fender washers to a curve approximately equal to the tin's V's radius. To use, lay washer across the slot, lay bender with integral pin on the washer, and whack with sledgehammer. The pin cannot break off, and holds the washer in place as it's driven down thru the slot and out the bottom. The bottom of the 1.5 inch wide steel is radiused to match the tin, so the washer cannot simply fold. Washers to the left are new unbent,
All done. Points on the bottom rail, where verticals or diagonals meet it, can lift 500lbs, i did it to lift steel off the brake for the big boat.
In case you were wondering, there is so much rebar because i was more concerned with wind lifting stuff up, not gravity holding it down. Winds here can trump gravity. The columns with base run about 800 lbs each, are run thru with rebar, which is hooked into the rebar of the concrete slabs when i poured them. All the concrete you see in these pics was mixed with a Craftman 1/2 inch double reduction drill, driving a 6 inch wide plaster mixer, in a 5 gallon bucket. By me.
Extending The Porch Roof
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To make more rain and sunshine shade, i am extending the porch roof over the driveway by 8ft. The summer sun here is brutal in afternoons, and this May 2009 we got 30% more rain than average (it rained some every day for hours). Making and putting up the truss, the spine of the extension: |
It's 34ft long, 10 inches high, ~1 inch thick, steel angle. It's strong enough to hold over 200 lbs hanging at any point. |
More pics. It's a steel framed roof structure, 2x4 pressure treated lumber laid flat to give me something to screw the tin onto. The lumber is what i bought to do the interior studs thruout the top floor of the house, but seeing as i won't be finishing the house, because the legal system here worships dogs and enforces their whims, i'll use the lumber here.
And here it is finished, bottom and top:
Ok, i spoke too soon. The boat parts i was building outgrew the 8ft roof extension, and it rained every day during October 2009. It rained nearly every day during September too, and by the end of October we were 15 inches above normal. I was getting nothing done outside. So i added onto the added onto:
(these were taken at night)
