My buddie in Seattle has an A frame house that was built 30 years ago. The A frame timbers look to be about 6x12". With the extensive moisture in the area and some terrible design, some of the timbers have rot in them. The bottoms of the A sit on a concrete pad and have a little plate that they sit in. The plate holds water and the bottom 6" has rotted! An engineer gave a quote for building metal legs that one would cut off the bottom 2' of timbers and bolt these in instead.
Also on the A at the eves, there is some rot and it was suggested to chip out the rot and use an epoxy to fill it.
Any other suggestions/options
Any suggested WA area contractors to do the work?
Posted By: John Buday
Re: A-Frame rot - 07/30/05 05:54 PM
Bruce
I assume from your description that the bottoms of the timbers are exposed to the weather. Are the roof beams connected to the floor or floor beams or are they buttressed by the concrete they are sitting on?
Can you describe the "metal legs" and their attachment to the timbers?
As for the eves, are these structural members or facia?
The bottom of the A is butressed by the concrete pillars in the ground.
As for the metal legs, I have not seenthem or the proposed sketches of them.
The eves are structural, actually sitting on the framed wall.
Posted By: John Buday
Re: A-Frame rot - 08/05/05 03:49 PM
Bruce
From your description it seems to me that removing only as much timber as is necessary to excise the rot would be advisable. Hopefully that would allow for installing hardware that would continue the same structural functions of the timbers and buttressing foundation. My concern would be that if too much was cut, you would have to design hardware that resolved the downward and outward thrust on the rafter timbers. Not impossible but more difficult and expensive.
Re: epoxy repairs....I have done repairs and work on boats and buildings using epoxy and penetrating epoxies and am of the opinion that they have limited use for structural repairs. What the epoxy will not do is replace any significant portion of wood subjected to bending or tension. It will work for compression if it is not replacing much of the length of the member. The reason being of course that at some point in the length, compression forces are translated to bending thru deflection.
I am not in Seattle (it’s about an 1 ½ hr drive) but I may be able to help your buddy out.
If he wants to contact me I can be E-mailed at jb@cascade-crest.com
J.E.B.