Josh Wells dropped by to show us his purple heart. He took a bullet for the company. Josh says he will return to work next week. Someone said they heard a rumor that Josh was trying to steal nails - one at a time.
Thursday - Two carpenters and three electricians worked a long day today. Joe Shiver and Gary Wayne Shiver set the columns in place. The columns arrived in the morning and the two did not stop until all of them were in place. Garry Wayne was afraid someone would walk off with a column or two. The columns are made of fiberglas and resins. They are super heavy - I am guessing 200 pounds each. They are hollow - but the state building code requires a steel strap to go down inside the center of each column. The strap is about 3 inches wide and is bolted to the concrete floor and the overhead beam. The columns do carry the load of the porch and a portion of the roof. The columns are placed so that no window or door has an obstructed view. They did the back porch first so that is how I got that picture first. Although the columns are nearly perfect in placement - tomorrow they will take the level and plumb to them.
The house is built in 10's. It is 40 x 60 - with porches 60 x 60. The ceilings are 10 feet high. The porches are 10 x 10 x 60. The columns are 10 x 10 x 10 - that is 10 inches by 10 inches by 10 feet. Each column had to be sawed to fit. Face masks were required. Usually I vacuum after the day's work - but this time they requested I do not stir up this dust.
This view shows how the back porch would be a perfect carport - 10 x 10 x 60 - drive in one end and out the other. The columns look like they are hanging over the edge - but remember the entire porch base will be surrounded by brick.
Florida has really become very particular about the hurricane laws passed after Andrew. There are 12 columns holding up the porch. Each one has a thick wide steel ribbon inside.
Each of the 12 columns had to be cut. You need a special saw blade to cut the fiberglass columns. Fiberglass breaks into fine dust that gets into the lungs - similar to miners' black lung asthma - except it is white lung.
The electricians are pulling 1000's of feet of wire for outlets - lights - switches - television - internet. All the TV wires come together in a media box. The DirecTV feed and the Comcast Internet feed will join here and be fed throughout the house. The wires are color coded. TV cable is black. 14 gauge wire mostly for outlets is white. 12 gauge wire for heavier draws are yellow.
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