Structural Wood Beam Replacement Nightmare
The story that I'm about to tell you, might not be true,
but the point that it makes is incredible and it should be shared with
others. There are some home repairs that shouldn't be done by
do-it-yourselfers and structural wood beam replacement is one of them.
I was contacted by a real estate professional who had just purchased a
fixer upper and had some structural wood beam damage. I couldn't believe
what I was looking at, once I finally arrived at the job. The ridge of
the roof was sagging on a wonderful two-story Victorian House.
The real estate professional greeted me and gave me a tour of all of the
structural damage that the home had incurred. She told me that the man,
who owned the home before, decided to make the structural wood beam
repair to the roof on his own. Obviously this man knew nothing about
structural wood framing and as I found out later, it cost him his life.
The real estate professional told me the story that she had heard from
the wife of the man who attempted to make these difficult structural
repairs. I didn't need to hear the whole story, because I could see what
had actually happened and where his inexperience cost him his life.
He supported a section of the roof correctly, but forgot to continue
this supports all the way down to the ground. When he started to remove
a section of the roof, it put too much pressure on the floor and it
collapsed.
Obviously this structural beam replacement and home repair wasn't worth
it and should have been done by a professional. I really would like
do-it-yourselfers to think twice, before replacing structural framing
components in their homes, if they really don't understand how these
framing components work.