On the last day of April, Axel had his site meeting with Mr. Einbecker to see if the wall of the barn was worth salvaging - and if the project should go ahead. The missing or loose top layer of stone and the pair of vertical cracks had raised serious doubt and the "deconstruction" process had stopped.
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As expected, Mr. Einbecker was positive. He thought his best bricklayer could insert a layer of brick over the stone layer and build the wall up to it's original level. From there we would continue with the original plan for a concrete ring around the top , supporting the main roof beams. Axel said he would get confirmation on this from the engineer who did the structural assessment of the building, but we would proceed. Whew.
Meanwhile, nothing is happening today, May First, because it is a Holiday. Actually, it is two or three holidays: Labor Day, Father's Day, and Christi Himmelfahrt, or Ascension Day. Since this holiday falls on Thursday, Friday is also a day without work, generally. This is what's called a "bridge day". In France, our company actually has an official day off but here in Germany most people just don't go to work. On our home project, no workers want to work, so they don't. The U.S. abandoned this inefficient practice years ago. Personally, I approve of the inefficiency.
The new plan has Mr. Nehr back on Monday to remove all the remaining wood beams (and hoping the walls don't fall down.) The main vertical support beam has dropped an inch or two so that needs to be "pushed" back up. As for all the old floor joists, they have to go. Some are rotted on the ends, some are just too large and heavy and a couple have twisted over the last 150 years to the point that one end has rotated almost 45 degrees. Hard to build with.
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Then the job shifts to Mr. Einbecker's crew to add whatever they need to the top of the walls to make a buildable surface. I suppose that will take the rest of the week, so we will not see completion of this step before we fly to the States on Thursday.
We have decided on the basic interior structure. The roof needs mid-span support so there are beams running front to back at the level of the sleeping deck. We hope to use old, historic beams as long as we can find a pair that are sound enough. The middle of these two horizontal supports will, in turn, be supported by the end walls and posts in the middle of their span. Again, hopefully old support timbers, with character.
The sleeping deck is too wide to not require support so we will have another front-to-back beam in the middle of the room. To avoid a vertical post in the middle of the room, an iron bar will go up, connecting the beam to the roof.
While we are gone, Mr. Nehr should finish all this support work and, hopefully, all the roof and outer walls too so we will return to a brand new building. That will be exciting!
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