Saturday, October 29, 2022

Basement Support Post

During the basement expansion project we had to replace the support pillar towards the front of this area because the original post foundation was not deep enough. At the time I couldn't get (or make) an appropriately sized pillar, so I had to use a 4" x 4", and I was never happy with how it came out: 


I always intended to replace the post once I had my cabinet saw up and running. The new post was made by ripping a piece of 2" x 12" doug fir into two (2) strips which are 4.75 wide. A piece of 0.5 inch thick plywood was then sandwiched between the fir and the whole thing nailed off. This gives a laminated post with dimensions 4.75 x 3.5.


I installed a couple of temporary supports which were shimmed such that a very tight fit was achieved:


Removed the old post...


And installed the new one!


Since the new post is laminated I could not re-use the steel T-brackets - the bolts would have bitten into the pillar's soft center. Instead I'm using a pair of smaller L-brackets which I can bolt into the "meat" of the pillar and the crossbeam.


To add strength I attached 3/4 inch thick plywood skirts to both sides of the junction with more nails than you can shake a stick at:  


The new column is connected to the concrete support with the same steel bracket as before:

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