Work We Have Done
Quality building renovations, gutting out and reconstructing old buildings, jacking to replace rotted structure, replacing foundations with poured concrete, historical preservation work, electrical, plumbing, heating, quality boiler installations, finish work, cabinet-making and cabinet work, installing new doors, installing hardwood strip flooring, installing VCT flooring, installing ceramic tile, framing for new construction, troubleshooting all types of building problems, all types of appliance and heating system repairs and maintenance, cleaning and setting up oil-fired burners using a Bacharach Combustion Test Kit.
Quality Boiler Installations
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Buderus boiler installations by Richard W. Guest
Exclusive supplier: FW Webb Company
Richard W. Guest in front of his Buderus Boiler (twelve zone) heating system
Buderus LP-fired boiler installation, eight zones
Replacing rotted sills for, replacing the foundation under, and performing complete rehabilitation to my Northeastern Vermont, East Saint Johnsbury c1850 residence while maintaining original architectural woodwork and charm
(and surviving while living in it)
In 1986, I owned and operated a building renovation business (Guest Renovation, Inc.). Our business primarily involved major structural work jacking buildings and replacing damaged and collapsing foundations. We performed a lot of structural work - replacing rotted sills, replacing floor joists, jacking to straighten and level buildings, etc. My wife and I also bought this house in 1986. We gutted it out and before reconstructing the interior, we replaced the rotted sills and replaced the original stone foundation (which was all caving in). The structural and foundation work was performed in 1988, before the interior walls and trim were installed (as always, start from the ground and work up) .
Out of 220 linear feet of original perimeter sills for the house, attached shed and attached barn, 180' of those sills were replaced with new 8x8's. All existing floor joists secured and/or notched into new sills.
Excavation to remove original stone foundation was performed and an entire new concrete foundation was installed, along with perimeter drainage, under the entire house, attached shed and attached barn. Additional drainage was installed around the entire front of the building which leads around both sides to the lower back yard.
This is how the back of our house looked when my wife and I purchased it in 1986.
One would think that simply jacking the deck and installing footings is all that is necessary.
However, the deck was completely rotted and my wife and I knew this
old house needed more than mere cosmetic work (don't they all?).
Seeing that I had been in the renovation business for five years at the time, I could "see through" the cosmetics and knew that there was a lot of work to be done. We estimated it would take us five years to complete the entire project.
Instead, it took us twenty years, due to having to work on other people's homes
in the meantime while doing everything that needed doing to our own home.
As always, we started at the bottom and worked our way up, as you will see below.
After the deck was removed from site, the following pictures show what remained after removing rotted clapboard siding and rotted sheathing. Rot extended deep into the wall structure, including rotted wall stud bottoms and sills. 
This photo was taken from inside the kitchenlooking into the sink cabinet through which you could literally see outdoors after all rotted wood was removed. Around the time this picture was taken, my wife told me of a contest she read about in a "Better Homes" magazine where you could send in a picture and explanation of "why you need a new kitchen" and possibly win a new kitchen. I declined, because I knew that a new kitchen in this house was going to involve more than simple cosmetics.
As you will see below, the kitchen really needed to be completely gutted down to bare structureincluding the floor. I doubt most companies would provide that kind of service putting in a "new kitchen." By the way, I'm glad I ripped all the walls out. One kitchen wall was literally filled with rat droppings.
Preparation to install new front sill. Note how the front wall structure had to be supported at certain stud locations as there was no structure on which to jack and there had to be room to get the new sill into position.
Front sill removed
Excavation to remove old collapsing stone (boulder) foundation in preparation for installing new poured concrete foundation (Summer, 1988). A close friend of mine (whom I hired) came in with his machinery. My father (Charlie) and I did all the jacking to shore up and level the building. Not only was the main building sagging due to foundation collapse, but lack of central floor structure resulted in the middle of the house being 6" lower than the (sagging) perimeter. The house was essentially caving in on itselfmuch like a slow motion implosion you would watch of a very large building, only this was a lot smaller and lot slower motion (taking over a century to get to where it was).
At this point, the house had already been gutted of most plaster and lathing which was a good thing, as it made it easier to jack and level the structure. The interior was in such poor condition anyway, that it needed to be replaced, and I wouldn't have been satisfied unless I was able to insulate it fully, rewire and re-plumb the entire building before putting up new walls and many new ceilings (we only saved two of sixteen ceilingsand even those two were completely redone to look like plaster).
Below is my friend with the excavator. I have the hard hat on in the right picture where he has a chain around a piece of foundation that didn't want to budge. We eventually got it out. Also notice in the right picture (over my head) the new front sill my father and I installed just two weeks prior.
Left photo below shows the office space. The floor was so rotted and structurally compromised that it was actually easier to remove the entire floor structure to excavate for the new foundation and then install entire new floor structure afterwards (observe the backhoe literally inside my office!).
Observe the new sills around the perimeter of the office (with corner irons). Until the sills were replaced, lifting the old structure was like trying to lift Jell-O with your fingers very precarious and extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive work!
Once sills were replaced, jacking and lifting the structure to support it in the air was a lot easier.
The front footing and concrete foundation wall was the first to be completed. You can see the front sill has been replaced. Here is the front concrete footing just after being poured. Notice the steel pipes holding up the front of the house. Also notice the keyways in the top of the footings to provide interlocking of the wall to be poured onto the new footing.
The steel pipes remain in place when the concrete is poured and hold the house up during concrete forming and pouring. Since there may be a weakness of concrete in any locations where these poles are located, numerous sections of horizontal rebar (steel concrete reinforcement) are placed alongside the vertical steel poles, in addition to the rebar that is placed both vertically and horizontally throughout the concrete. For this big old house, over thirty cubic yards concrete were poured and miles of rebar were installed in the concrete footings and walls. All foundation replaced 1988.
After much excavation, jacking and forming for concrete walls, the one end of the house (shown below) was almost ready to have concrete poured for the new foundation. First, though, a ramp needed to be excavated into the grade - around the building - to facilitate driving the concrete mixer truck around the back of the house, since so much ground was removed during excavation. Also, angled boards needed to be installed (like funnels) all along the top of the forms to allow for concrete to flow into the forms below the sills that are in place. This allows for head pressure of concrete above the actual bottom of sills to bring the concrete up to the bottom side of the sills (with much vibration and probing the wet concrete) and then before the concrete is completely set, the boards and excess concrete are all broken off.
Charles E. Guest (Richard's father - Summer, 1988), screeding off
newly-poured footing under office. Observe the amount of rebar
in the new footing and the newly-installed sills overhead.
Incidentally, the concrete being poured for these footings was
5,000# mix as there was a lot of water in t he ground when this
hole was dug (3' of water was in the hole over the weekend after
excavation―it was just like a swimming pool!). We didn't want
the walls for this portion of basement to go anywhere which is
why we used the additional strength concrete in the footings.
All footings for the entire project had rebar laid out in this manner.
This was the room where the complete floor structure was removed in
order to facilitate excavation, since the original floor structure
was compromised anyway. This is also now the "zone room" in
the basement where all the zones are located in the 12 Zone
Boiler Installation Video shown above on YouTube.
Since the ground is almost pure clay and poor drainage, not only
was perimeter drainage around the new foundation installed, but
there was also 380' of 4" perforated pipe set in crushed stone laid
around the front of the dwelling, lower than the newly-installed
foundation walls and footings (approximately 8' deep). This was
backfilled with gravel to stop underground water veins and divert
them around the building and to the back yard before they reach the
new foundation. There is a hill in front of the dwelling and a lot
of water runs underground off that hill which was a problem before
the new foundation was installed. After the new foundation and
drainage was installed, the problem was completely solved. There
is constantly water running from both ends of this "horseshoe" shaped
pipe which has both ends exposed in the lower back yard.
Dimple-type membrane was installed on all foundation walls facing
the upper slope (hill), to help prevent water infiltration through the
concrete walls. The type that was installed is capable of draining
500 gpm per lineal foot of membrane material on an 8' high wall.
This photo was taken in 2008, 20 years after the membrane was
installed. This shows the durability of the material (both the plastic
and the outer filter material are visible). This is in a location that
is exposed to sunlight, so any breakdown of the plastic through UV
rays has not occurred.
An impressive photo of the extent of excavation necessary to ensure
proper drainage around the entire dwelling. It was literally to the
point where we were running out of places to put all the dirt that was
being excavated as the dirt expands and takes up more space once
it has been dug (known as "fluff factor").
We estimated it was expanding by approximately 30% on this job.
Also, the fact that there were 20 tractor trailer dump truck loads
of crushed stone, gravel and sand brought in exacerbated the
problem of where to put the excavated ground until time to backfill.
Most of these dirt piles were eventually taken out back and filled in
where there was originally a steep bank just beyond the back of the
house to create a rolling lawn landscape.
Here I am, ready to pour the floor under the office space.
Notice that the new concrete walls have been poured. The
stone wall remaining on the right side is stone on the office
side of the basement which is embedded into poured concrete
on the opposite side. That wall is entirely inside the basement
and all stones have been checked (with a 30 pound sledgehammer)
to ensure that all are tight within the concrete and are not going
to fall out of the wall. You can see the new sill along the front
wall (this is one of the front doors that the chute is extending through).
I remember this picture well. "Baby-sitting" the main concrete floor
as it was curing. I didn't get to use the power-trowel until after midnight.
Here I am, after power-troweling, flattening the area of the sloped
floor where the basement toilet will be located. Then, I had to trowel
over my footprints when I got the area troweled. This would have been
around 2:30 AM and I took the picture with the camera on self-time on a tripod.
I slept well after this floor was troweled.
Same house, replacing rotted roof structure and roof sheathing in the valley between the barn and attached shed where water had been leaking for years. Notice the new deck that has been installed. This was after all foundation work was completed under entire house and new concrete footings under the barn. As always, work from the ground up! Since the foundation was in, it was time to add the back deck and time to work on the roof as all lower structural work has been completed. This guarantees nothing will move that is finished up above. Third picture shows hoisting up the round-top window into the second-floor studio back dormer. These pictures were taken circa 1991.
The house was gutted for all new insulation, wiring and plumbing. Some rooms, including the kitchen had such bad flooring and floor structure that the floors were also gutted down to structure. Below shows a photograph of the gutted kitchen and I'm measuring for new floor joists to be installed where original floor structure was compromised. The kitchen floor had five layers of flooring, one on top of the other. There were actually children's toys between the layers of flooring which were approximately 6" overall thickness! We had to live with a temporary kitchen in the dining room for several years until the kitchen was completed.
After over 20 years of renovations, this is how the house looks today!
Would I do it again?
Only if I was not living in the house during renovations.
Richard rewiring a Square D 200 amp main breaker panel
to isolate grounds from neutrals to convert to a sub panel.
All hot wires marked with wire markers to facilitate ease
of rewiring the hot wires into each of the forty breakers.
New isolation ground bars not yet installed in this panel.
Completed work, the panel is now a sub panel ―
all neutral conductors are isolated from ground conductors.
Call Richard Guest 802-748-5505
Richard W. Guest
Home Buyers Inspection Service, LLC
Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, USA
(802) 748-5505
email: r.guest@vermontinspector.com
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Created: 01/02/2006
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