|
Basement Addition under existing Deck and
Sunroom
This project was started in October 2007 with some
minor work being done to the first floor level which was basically street
level. The new owner intended however to expand the basement into an
additional family room as that room was located at the lower 'garden
level' and would provide an ideal recreation place.
The exisiting
deck had at some stage had a sunroom built onto it. It wasn't possible to
destroy this structure because it had been grandfathered in without
permits some time ago, but an alteration could mean losing the opportunity
of having a room up there at all. So when the basement extension was
proposed, it was going to mean supporting the sunroom on a temporary
structure whilst the new concrete foundations and slab below were
poured.
The deck was dismantled and the footings and foundations
formed and poured. The extremely wet weather meant we had to tarp the
entire job site, but that didn't prevent the trenches from being filled
continuosly with water which we had to combat using an array of pumps and
drains. The job site soon turned into a muddy nightmare of clay and dirt
which covered everything, but it didn't stop us getting the rebar signed
off after scrubbing it and the foudations pooured on the only sunny day in
January.
Once the foundations had been poured, we started
framing the outside walls. The existing beam and supporting walls of the
house were carried on temporary 4X4 posts within the existing basement.
The new outside wall of the addition incorporated three large openings
including two 6' wide French doors. To achieve the necessary stability, we
opted to put in a single 26' long 91/2" deep PSL beam across the entire
front. Once that was up and the framing was finished including the
hold-downs for the shear walls, we sheathed much of the exterior using
1/2" structural OSB and rebuilt the deck using 4X6 joists. These carried
3/4" marine ply boards.
The next step was pouring
the slab which was completed just a couple of weeks later. This project is still in the works but is running
on schedule and so far within the budget!
|
