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From: kemley8@aol.com
Category: Building Codes and Zoning
Date: 24 Feb 2000
Time: 15:45:05
Remote Name: 152.174.148.233

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Thanks for your thorough (and fast!) reply. Here are some answers to your questions to hopefully give you a better idea of the structure. I realize it's hard to visualize via this forum. We received blueprints yesterday so I have more info but we think they deviated from them a bit.

It is a 14' x 17' family room with a 9' ceiling. Siding is aluminum, roofing is regular asphalt shingles. One wall has a huge window (about 6' x 8'), one side has a door that opens to a deck, the other side has 2 very small windows. Structure is made of 2x4s.

Underneath the addition is open space - it sits about 8' off the ground because of the slope of the property (the first floor is almost the second floor in the back of the yard). On the ground is a concrete slab/patio area the size of the addition (14' x 17'). It is unknown at this point how deep the concrete is. The 4 4x4" posts that hold it up on the far end are anchored to the top of the concrete slab with L-shaped brackets - they don't appear to be submerged in the concrete. The blueprint we now have in our hands shows that those posts should sit on "steel post shoe w/drainage vent holes bolted-thru" but from what we can recall they are just L-shaped brackets, but we could be remembering incorrectly. Looking at the blueprints, it looks as though the original plan was to use 6x6" posts and submerge them in 2' wide x 3' deep concrete footings (not sit them on the slab, as currently exists). There's a deck next to the addition that uses the 4x4's ... looks like they just used them throughout and did not use the 6x6's under the room.

The floor structure, according to the blueprint, is two 3 1/2 x 14 parallam beams extending perpendicular from the house toward the far end. It reads "Parallams to be pocketed into existing masonry bearing wall - min 8" cement solid." What we saw in the basement appeared to be a 12x12" beam (that wasn't a typo in my previous message) but perhaps what we saw was running elsewhere and was unrelated to the addition ... we really need to get back in the house to check.

I see now why they have 4 posts instead of just 2. That 14' beam ends at one of the posts, and then a small 3' length extends past it to make the room 17' long.

The flooring joists are labeled as "2 x 12" floor joists, 16" O.C. w/bridging. The far end joist, which runs parallel to the house, is labeled as "double 2x12 rim joist."

I found out that they did get a building permit and am in the process of finding out if it was inspected afterwards.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

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