A Brief History

The project entails repairing the building at 335 Maplewood Ave in a manner that meets both preservation and sustainability goals. The building is the new location for Petersen Engineering, a firm that has been located in Portsmouth since 1992, and specializes in sustainable building engineering. We intend for this project to showcase techniques & materials that promote both preservation and sustainability and intend to share all aspects of the project locally and regionally through open houses, presentations, industry tradeshows, case studies and publications. We foresee this project being a valuable educational tool to demonstrate that preservation goals need not be compromised by sustainability goals. We have teamed with Bruss Construction who we know from past collaborations has exceptional experience and expertise on projects with the dual goal of preservation and sustainability.

The project received approval by the Historic District Commission on January 6, 2010 with construction scheduled to begin early February 2010.

The projected peak heat loss reduction is 85%.


Monday, February 8, 2010

Brace for jacking........for real this time!

It turns out that the jacking system seen in the pictures posted on 2/4 was just a mock-up. I didn't get the memo. Sorry. They built the mock-up, lifted the corner a 1/4" or so, put it back down, learned a few things about how to make the connection to the second floor beam better and confirmed that the building is not going to collapse upon jacking.


Picture: Mock-Up Jacking System


Picture: Final Jacking system (more wood, more screws)


Picture: Material Delivery

They got a big delivery of materials Friday including the lumber to build the final jacking systems. They built them this morning and have so far lifted the corner of the building about 3/4". The new systems are built pretty much the same as the mock-up with the exception that they are built using more robust lumber.

The plan today is to finish jacking the corner of the building high enough to replace the sill, replace the sill and put the building back down by the end of the day. Tomorrow they would move down the wall and repeat these steps.


Video: Jacking up the corner
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