Barn Basement

Project report; all non-carpenters are excused. The barn east wall had drifted out a bit and the foundation drifted in some over the last 85 years or so. This led to the greater part of the east wall being about 2/12 inches east of the where the bottom of its studs are. Any further drift would put a lot of torque around the base of the studs and might pull them off the plate leading to a collapse. To forestall this I placed additional 2"x4"'s leading from the first floor joists STRAIGHT down to the plate to take the load without any torque and I added some diagonal bracing to prevent further drift. I also added a steel I beam to reinforce an undersized ten foot long 4" x 8" which was sagging pretty badly over the lower door. This header , holding up 8 long floor joists, ten feet of wall, a ten foot wide swath of 15 foot long loft and a similar width of roof is supported by all of one 2"x4" post at each end. Pretty sadly under-designed, but still very much standing. With the beam in place and resting on temporary columns the opening is now dead straight and level - something of a surprise to me. When I am done, the steel beam will take most of the load and be supported by two additional 2x 4s at each end. I'm currently waiting for some fittings to attach the joists to the steel beam.