The reclaimed beams that we purchased have reinforced steel (rebar) in them that was used to connect the beams in their former life.  We had to remove the lengths of #3, #4 and #5 rebar, and all nails, from each wooden beam.

Unfortunately, it was raining and it made the two-hour task somewhat miserable.

Our ten (10) reclaimed Douglas Fir beams.

We removed 23 pieces of rebar (a number of nails and screws) from the 10 wooden beams. Dave Merchant, smiling, suggested that we made a wind chime with the rebar pieces.

Dave Merchant (left) and Ben (right), covering the wooden beams with a tarp to keep them dry and protect them from the rain.

Bryan found a potential source of reclaimed Douglas Fir beams in Kenwood, CA.  The beams were being taken out of a 100+ year old building, located at the South East corner of Griswold Avenue and Highway 12 (Sonoma Highway) in Kenwood, California.

Reclaimed Beams

The beams are approximately 25 feet long and are 4x12s.  The building is being deconstructed and the beams should be available next week.  Most of the beams look fine.  There are a couple beams that have fire damage at one end.

Although these beams look good, they are too narrow as we require 6x beams.  However, we could rip the beams and get some 2×12 material …

The beams are in the roof structure of this 100+ year old building in Kenwood that is being deconstructed.

The 4x beams were supporting the roof structure over the first floor of the building.

View of the end of one of the 4x12 Douglas Fir beams. You can see the growth rings in this beam.

The view from the old building across Highway 12 is fabulous. These beams have had a great history and could work well in our home.

Watching the San Jose Sharks Beat the Edmonton Oilers

 Eric and Natasha Venzon generously offered to take us to see the Edmonton Oilers play the San Jose Sharks in the HP Pavillion.  Born in Edmonton, Bryan is a life-long Oilers fan; Jo-Anne was cheering for the home team, San Jose. 

Throughout the game, Eric enjoyed pointing out just how poorly the last-place Oilers were playing vs the first-place Sharks.  Bryan was able to stand up and cheer only once in the second period …

Sharks win 4-1 over Edmonton.

Playing of the national anthems.

O Canada!

Our house requires some large beams inside the house.  Supporting the floor are steel beams and there are wooden beams to support the roof.  Some of the wooden beams will be exposed and others will be hidden.

Wooden Beams

In order to be ‘sustainable’, we are looking for reclaimed wooden beams.  Essentially, we would like to have wooden beams that have been used in other buildings and are structurally sound so we can use them in our house.

These are not easy to find and, when you can find them, they’re expensive.

We came across someone selling three beams that were part of an old bridge.  These beams were 12 inches by 12 inches (rough) and were held together with four 1 inch steel rods.  This former bridge structure was floating in the San Joaquin delta and was pulled ashore and had been dring since August 2009.

Bryan drove to see the beams.  We could ‘see’ how the beams could be dressed up so they would look new.  Since this would reduce the ultimate size of the beams we decided to ‘pass’ on these beams and keep looking.

This is the former bridge deck that we could take apart and obtain large structural beams. The four beams would be almost 30 feet long. The two middle beams would yield larger finished beams than the left and right side beams.

The beams were over 12 full inches in width and depth. We would have to take at least an inch or more off each side to have solid dimensional (square) timbers to build with.

The four beams were held together with 1 inch steel rods and bolts, as you can see in this photo. The end of this beam would have to be cut off, reducing the length of the beam.

We love wood and want our house to have some history to it.  Accordingly, we’re looking for old wood that we can remill to use in the house.

Using reclaimed wood is good for the environment, it looks beautiful, and it gets us some LEED points.  The only problems are that it is difficult to find and, when you do find it, the wood is expensive.

Bryan set off to visit a ranch near Livermore to see some 50+ year old lumber.  He liked it but didn’t buy any.

Barn north of Livermore where wood is covered by the white tarp.

2x Redwood lumber that is more than 50 years old. This would clean up nicely.

The Douglas Fir beams were too short and didn't meet our requirements.

Measuring the 4x beams. We need 6x beams and have reclaimed 4x beams from the original house.

If we need more 2x Redwood decking, this is where we will get it from.

Measuring the SIPs

We need to put lumber into the SIPs so we can attach the roof panels to the flat decking and attached the roof panels to the pony walls.  The foam will need to be removed in the roof panels, just like the pony wall panels.

Bryan measured the actual dimensions so we can order the LVL and other 2x materials.

The SIPs are under a tarp, so they are all dry.

The SIP pony walls and other components are all individually numbered.

The 45 degree roof SIP requires a 16-1/2 inch LVL.

Looks like the pony walls will require a 2x10 to attach to the 45 degree roof SIPs.