Alton Place - 1930's solid brick Center Hall Colonial Project - Two story addition off the back. Expanded chef's kitchen on the first floor plus powder room and a second floor den with vaulted ceiling with balcony. On the side of the house, add a full master bath above the existing sun-room and replace existing windows in the sun-room. Add an additional rear entrance glass door.
Alton Place presented challenges on several fronts. We had to create several large openings through the existing exterior walls while the client continued to live in and use the house. One opening required removal of nearly 50% of the first floor rear exterior wall. To accommodate this arrangement, we constructed and enclosed the shell of the new addition before removing ANY existing exterior walls.
The entire left corner of the new addition has little exterior wall structural support due to the large quantity of windows on first and second floors. A very tall prefabricated, precisely measured and pre-installed steel vertical post, is employed to support the entire left corner of the new structure. The entire project could have been jeopardized if this post had been incorrectly installed or measured . The remainder of the project fitted perfectly around the pre-installed post!
Steel also supports the house above the area where nearly 50% of the rear exterior wall once stood. This feat is accomplished by sandwiching the wall above the opening with two 17 foot long by 17 inch wide and 3/4 inch thick steel flat beams, held in place by 20 through bolted 3/4 pins and 2 steel end posts.
The flooring of the new 2nd floor den AND the ceiling height of new 1st floor kitchen are BOTH dictated by the placement of the sandwich beams. Once again, the beams had to be precisely set. You see, the beams had to be in place BEFORE we could remove any exterior walls! Once again an error would be costly. But, once again, we got it perfect!
Please have a look at some photos taken during construction...
Rear of house
This is the rear of the house before any work. The Sunroom is just visible off to the right.
Interior steel plate
The interior steel plate in place. This plate had to be brought in through the side of the house!
Here is the exterior steel plate going into place. Note that the exterior wall is stilll in place.
Exterior Steel Plate
Steel post
The ALL important Steel support post in place.
Framing in progress. Note how the everything ties into the steel post. If the post had been installed incorrectly, the entire additon would be incorrect. But, of course, it was perfect! See the next photo for a better view!
Framing of addition
The rear addition nearly finished. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view.
Sunroom. What's left of it!
The sunroom was essentially gutted and completely rebuilt to include a new second floor and hipped roof.
This photo speaks for itself...
New master bath coming together
Master bath and sunroom ready for windows and Brick
Please click on these additional photos to see some highlights from the completed work...
