bad BAD news ya'll!

[Brad Hammond]

well,

where do i start. we had a "microburst" or something come through here this morning with a line of storms, and this was the damage. gotta start over.

it looks like the first floor walls were pulled out from under he roofing system. the roof is twisted at about 30-40 degrees off its original axis and i'm trying to figure out if it twisted as it fell or if the wind twisted it.

my framer came by and i think he felt worse than we do! i told my wife to study the floor plans again to make sure she didnt want to make some changes.............. LAST CHANCE! lol :p

as for coping mechanisms........ some folks fuss, some folks indulge in a fermented beverage or two.........my wife and i went to the local meat store and had two bone in ribeyes cut about an inch thick-- came home and fired up the grill! now chocolate cake and a big glass of milk!
cya, wish me luck with the insurance type folks!

brad

[Richard Wolf]

I'm feeling your pain. Best of luck with the out come.

Richard

[Norman Hitt]

What a disappointment Brad, but at least you and your family weren't hurt, and it wasn't the house you are currently living in that would maybe have destroyed a lot more costly and hard to replace items instead of just raw lumber and nails.

I do wish you well with the Insurance dealings, and hopefully they will act quickly and fairly.

[Dennis Peacock]

Man...Brad........

That really sucks!!!! :( Sorry to hear about you having to start over, but at least you and the family are ok and now the LOYL can get all those changes made this time around...eh? :eek: :rolleyes: :D

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

Yikes! :eek:

KC

[John Cavanaugh]

Ouch... That really sucks. I feel bad for you & your wife...

Hope things find their way to getting back on track...

--
John C

[Corey Hallagan]

Sorry to see your damage but as the others have said no injuries to you and your family. Good luck to you.

Corey

[Andy London]

Geeze man, you must be heart broken. A few years back when I was building homes as a business, I had that happen on a three story town house, we even had the walls sheathed...I was really down and out and what a mess to clean up.....Things will get better though! And I too am glad no one was hurt!

Andy

[John Bailey]

Brad,

I'm a strict vegetarian, but after seeing your pictures, I might go out and get a ribeye also. Wish you all the luck there is in putting it all back together.

John

[John Hart]

Oh man...that just breaks the heart! Glad you have insurance to worry about. Just devastating! Good luck to you. BTW..you have a great attitude!

[John Renzetti]

Hi , Bummer on the storm damage. Unless you had some reports of tornados that does look like what they call a microburst. You guys in AL have been getting hit with a bunch of storms with hail this year. We've been going in and out of Little Rock a number of times in the last two weeks and it looks like a lot of heavy stuff north of Little Rock.
Hope the insurance company does right by you and you get back on track soon.
take care,
John

[Bob Wilkerson]

Sorry to see it happen. With luck your builders insurance will come thru without too many problems. Glad no one was there when it fell.

I had one come down a few years ago when I was inside it... when it started. We heard a pop, followed by creaking... Superintendent says" Get the he** out of here!" I go for the door, he went thru the window followed by the crash as we hit the edge of the building. In our case some wind pushed one of the trusses which failed, and caused it to tumble the rest of them down.

Bob

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Brad, Sorry to hear what happend, but you have the right attitude.

Good luck with the insurance guys!

[mike malone]

you've got a great attitude about it. Hope the insurance will come thru for you.
best mike

[John Haylow]

Brad. That is very sad to see. Thankfully there were no injuries.

Regards,
John

[Jim O'Dell]

Brad, I'm sooo sorry. The pictures are just gut wrenching. I will say this, you've got a great attitude about it. I don't think I would have handled it as well as you are, at least not at first. Hang in there. Salvage as much of the wood as you can. Since no one was hurt, all it did was set you back some time wise, that you can live with! Jim.

[Jim Becker]

Oh, my. I'm glad no-one was hurt...the contraction can be re-done, but dealing with injury or death would really be a bummer. And I fully approve of your coping mechanisims... ;)

[Frank Pellow]

Brad, I can only begin to imagine how bad you must feal. I very much admire your attitude!

As requested, I "wish you luck with the insurance type folks!"

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brad ....what a stroke of bad luck! Good luck with the insurance folks!

[Kelly C. Hanna]

Brad, very sorry to see this happen, I sure hope you can get the insurance guys on the track soon and get back to building. I think you cope well from the sound of things...how was the steak?

[Mike Stanton]

Sorry to hear about the storm. But it is lucky that it didn't happen after the place was all built. You have a good sence of humor about it . Good luck . Mike

[David Wilson]

Brad

What

[Brad Hammond]

thanx all for the thoughts!!!!!!!!!!!! we'll make it. on the news side of things. i talked to the director of our county's EMA and he said they were tracking a thunderstorm cell that tracked right across my area that had steady winds up to 58mph.

not much u can do for that except watch from a hole in the ground!

hey, can ya'll see my next workbench hidden in all that pine? i can ;)

hehe!!
cya

[Dan Forman]

Brad, What a disappointment! Glad that you are not derailed, hope the steaks were tasty, and that your insurance comes through without any difficulty. Better luck with round two.

Dan

[Richard Wolf]

One note; I don't know about building codes where you live, but in NY if a frame falls down all the wood must be destroyed and can not be reused to rebuild.

Richard

[John Hart]

One note; I don't know about building codes where you live, but in NY if a frame falls down all the wood must be destroyed and can not be reused to rebuild.

Richard

Does that mean you can't even build benches?

[Richard Wolf]

Does that mean you can't even build benches?

No, I didn't mean that. But I've seen builders pile all the lumber up and drive over it with a dozer so there would be little doubt about not reusing it. I'm sure if you dragged off some for a bench it would be fine.

Richard

[John Hart]

Oh..Ok...
Man, that would be a crime! 'course then, running it over with a bulldozer should be a crime too.
Brad, That's a lot of benches!

[Karl Laustrup]

Brad, in a way I know how you must feel. We had a house built a few years back and if something like that had happened at that stage of construction, my wife and I would have been devastated.

No injuries though. That's a good thing. :)

I would certainly salvage as much of that lumber as I could and build a bench and whatever other things you may be needing in your new shop.

Hang in there, it'll get better. :)

[John Shuk]

Sorry to see what happened to you. Like everyone else I'm glad nobody was hurt. On the plus side there should be some turning stock available in the area.
John

[Bill Lewis]

I know that the one thing that is going to suck the most over this tragedy is the time lost in getting in to your new house. Even the slightest delays can be the most frustrating.
Keep up the good spirits, it'll all work out.

[Rob Russell]

Brad,

Sorry to hear about/see the pictures of your misfortune. I like your attitude of "LOML gets to make any floorplan changes now". :) As everyone else has said - if noone got hurt then the damage is "just" time and money.

I'm curious about 1 thing, though. It doesn't appear as if the walls had much sheathing on them, and the sheathing is what prevents racking (maybe I just can't see them in the pictures). Is that correct and, if so, any idea why so much of the stud work was done with no sheathing?

What are the horizontal strips of wood running across the roof for? Spacers to nail mount the sheathing on?

Rob

[Brad Hammond]

yeah rob, the sheating is coverd up in those pics. on top of that i hadn't removed a single brace! each wall had 9 or 10 braces. i think that's one of the most frustrating things to go through. i dont know of one thing i could do different. the framing is sub'd out but i'm on the framing crew, so i know things are done RIGHT. i've helped this guy build 4 other houses. one of them being my parents house. it was a strong house. just bad timing between not having a roof to tie everything together a little more and a bad storm coming through.
oh well, i love it so much i'm gonna build it again. :D

i thought i had doged the hot weather.........nope

cya

[Bob Hovde]

What a bummer! Hope all goes well with the clean-up and re-build.

Bob

[Rob Russell]

Brad,

What are the horizontal strips of wood running across the roof for? Spacers to nail the sheathing to?

Rob

[Jason Tuinstra]

Brad, that was just the woodshop right? :D :p Seriously, it sounds like you've weathered the storm remarkably. I hope everything goes well for you and yours in the days ahead.

[Tim Farrell]

Thoughts and prayers, brad - good luck.

[John Bailey]

Richard,

What earthly reason, or unearthly for that matter, could there be for not reusing the lumber that comes from a frame that is blown down?

John

[Richard Wolf]

John, the lumber suffers from a stress called shake. It can result in lumber which can no longer carry loads that it is rated to carry.

Richard

[John Bailey]

Richard,

I never knew that. Just goes to prove you learn something new every day, in my case, I learn quite a lot every day, and a lot of that comes from this site.

John

[Doug Edwards]

From a forestry website:

Shake: Shake is a separation or a weakness of fiber bond, between or through the annual rings, that is presumed to extend lengthwise without limit. Because shake reduces resistance to shear in members subjected to bending, grading rules therefore restrict shake most closely in those parts of a bending member where shear stresses are highest. In members with limited cross grain, which are subjected only to tension or compression, shake does not affect strength greatly. Shake may be limited in a grade because of appearance and because it permits entrance of moisture, which results in decay. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

[Brad Hammond]

rob, the horizontal pieces are spruce lathing for a metal roof. no need for decking and the metal guys say i can use it every 32", but i feel it ties everything together a little if it's on 16" centers. as u can see the rafters held together pretty good. the spruce can take a beating!

as for an update. it looks like things will be back on track shortly. insurance guy said tear it down and use new lumber. which is fine with me! i'm not planning on salvaging any lumber for the reason mentioned earlier, and if u have any doubts as to whether or not shake will hurt a rafter or joist you should feel this wood! when u beat it with a hammer it rattles. not solid at all!

thanx again for all the wishes and thoughts!! we're back down to the second story floor now and ripped up half of the ply subfloor. if the rain holds out, i'm fairly confident we can start laying rat sills again this time next week.

i sure dread putting that ridge back up again! my butt was drawn up for 3 days! lol

cya'll
brad

[Terry Hatfield]

Brad,

That's too bad. Hope it all gets worked out.

t

[Jerry Olexa]

At least you or your wife weren't hurt, Sorry about your misfortune, Hang in there. Keep your positive attitude. It'll all work out...