The living room support stud was there, right where I left it.
I got some long drill bits from Canadian Tire again for pilot holes – #6 and #7, I think. The first five wore out from fatigue (or misuse).
The second support stud went in. I used 3½” screws to mount the first and second stud to the existing balloon studs.
Dave and Floyd came by just as I was mounting these. Dave asked if the living room beam was fir. It certainly was. I wonder what year that was done.
I used about a dozen 6″ screws, also from Lealta, to tie these in to the other 2x6s and balloon studs. Pilot holes were done first as I didn’t want to wear the heads off these screws. They were put in at various angles for a more rigid fit. This annoys people trying to take the screws out (“Why did he put them in sideways?” but it makes for less chance of sheer.)
Now that this was complete, we could work outside. A ledger was screwed into each balloon stud using four 6″ screws at each mount point. We could only get 3 studs with this short ledger.
At the end of jacking the ledgers with bottle jacks and tightening the screw jacks, we still had one more inch to go. It had been raised up 3/4″ so far.
We added a second ledger, this time a 2×12, and continued to jack and tighten.
Each of these eight Nuchoice floor screw jacks can hold, according to the company, 7000 lbs. [7000 * 8 = 56,000 = 28-ton] If the house is 90-ton, then, in theory, one-quarter of this would be 22.5 ton. Add in a 20% tolerance, and it would be close. So, again in theory, eight should hold but sixteen should be better. Unfortunately, Amazon.ca says they’re out. I wrote the company asking them when they’ll be available again.
However, the front door wouldn’t latch or lock. I had to carve some of the metal out of the lock latch before leaving.
