How to straighten my boathouse?

[check]

OK, guys, here is a tough one for you. My 50' long, 100 year-old boathouse was sinking in to the lake at the end, but I have been able to replace enough of the (20' deep!) cribs on both sides so that the building is now up out of the water. BUT, it is crooked, and leaning. You can see in the photo where we tried hammering the walls to the right, hoping that the whole thing would move over, causing the whole boathouse to rotate a bit counterclockwise. And they did move (quite easily, actually). But only the bottom. (You can see where the side wall actually pulled away from the front wall.) Note that we have raised the wall a bit more since that photo, and in the Fall the water goes down quite a bit so we can walk on the crib joists. The second picture with yours truly shows this.

And because the end of the boathouse is 50' out into the water, we cannot simply attach a cable to the top corner and pull it sideways - there are no big trees growing out of the water LOL. This would be easy if the building was on land so I could just pull the top of the building over with a winch or what-not tied to a big tree.

It is so weird. I can hammer the bottom of both sides over, but the top does not want to come.

Any ideas, guys? Creative suggestions would be MUCH appreciated!

James

 

[fried1765]

OK, guys, here is a tough one for you. My 50' long, 100 year-old boathouse was sinking in to the lake at the end, but I have been able to replace enough of the (20' deep!) cribs on both sides so that the building is now up out of the water. BUT, it is crooked, and leaning. You can see in the photo where we tried hammering the walls to the right, hoping that the whole thing would move over, causing the whole boathouse to rotate a bit counterclockwise. And they did move (quite easily, actually). But only the bottom. (You can see where the side wall actually pulled away from the front wall.) Note that we have raised the wall a bit more since that photo, and in the Fall the water goes down quite a bit so we can walk on the crib joists. The second picture with yours truly shows this.

And because the end of the boathouse is 50' out into the water, we cannot simply attach a cable to the top corner and pull it sideways - there are no big trees growing out of the water LOL. This would be easy if the building was on land so I could just pull the top of the building over with a winch or what-not tied to a big tree.

It is so weird. I can hammer the bottom of both sides over, but the top does not want to come.

Any ideas, guys? Creative suggestions would be MUCH appreciated!

James



View attachment 604348
View attachment 604350

Your pictures show the general issue.
Wish I could be there.
I do have an idea, but somewhat difficult to explain.
Do you have a local house mover to consult with?

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm not sure if I understand what's happening. With old structures, (houses) I've found that when they bend over the decades, the wood snaps before bending back, and you have to either cut it into sections to make it straight and sister new wood next to it, or replace it.

 

[s219]

Very cool building!! What I'd suggest is to maybe use a come-along inside the structure, in combination with wood bracing. Basically, figure out what needs to be persuaded back into place and then figure out where to place the come-along for the desired pull and where to place the bracing to allow that "focused" pull without moving something else out of whack. It's going to be a slow incremental process but that's the only way to do it that I can see. Make this into a problem with triangles (both the pull and the bracing) and you'll get the control that is needed.

I've also used large levers (made out of lumber) and turnbuckles to tweak old structures. I feel like a come-along gives you more control and quick resets, plus you can attach a doubler pulley for more mechanical advantage and it will slow down the movement for better control.

 

[fried1765]

Very cool building!! What I'd suggest is to maybe use a come-along inside the structure, in combination with wood bracing. Basically, figure out what needs to be persuaded back into place and then figure out where to place the come-along for the desired pull and where to place the bracing to allow that "focused" pull without moving something else out of whack. It's going to be a slow incremental process but that's the only way to do it that I can see. Make this into a problem with triangles (both the pull and the bracing) and you'll get the control that is needed.

I've also used large levers (made out of lumber) and turnbuckles to tweak old structures. I feel like a come-along gives you more control and quick resets, plus you can attach a doubler pulley for more mechanical advantage and it will slow down the movement for better control.

Good advice!

 

[Cat_Driver]

Hey James.

Your going to need some new support piers place at the end of the pier then build from that solid baase. Either pillars made of cement of phone poles deep in the lake ttill they hit solid granite.


I'm out here in Ca. where we have earthquakes weekly. Also do a search on Earthquake retrofit / repair/ some but not ALL items will apply, but I think enough to bring you back in shape.

Here's links:
Earthquake Retrofitting, Foundation Bolting & Cripple Wall Bracing | Earthquake Safety

The Post to Beam Connection - Bay Area Retrofit

A Step-by-Step Guide to Retrofit Your Home for Earthquakes

Seismic Retrofit Guide 212 | Simpson Strong-Tie

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Wow, what a beautiful old building. I'm just going to watch and hope you can get it straightened up to your satisfaction.

 

[check]

Your pictures show the general issue.
Wish I could be there.
I do have an idea, but somewhat difficult to explain.
Do you have a local house mover to consult with?

Hey Fried, i am all ears. The local guy that did my boat ramp. So PM me if you wish and I can even call you on the phone.

Meanwhile, here is what the new superstructure looks like (And I have installed one more 6 x 6 since this photo, I believe.) Note that it is all new 6 x 6's for the topt 5 or so crib members, until you get to the old Cedar 8 x 8's from the 1920's or so. (And remember, that crib goes down a total of 18-20 feet!) So I am not sure I could use the crib itself as an anchor point for a come-along.

More photos from this Spring, when the water was down almost 4 feet:

View attachment Boathouse Crib RHS April 9, 2019.pdfView attachment Boathouse Crib LHS April 9, 2019.pdf

And here is what it looked like when the lake was at its full "Summer Level" some 7 years ago before we started repairs:

View attachment Boathouse and Michelle from the water July 2012.pdf

 

[check]

Hey, thanks, Kyle! I has been quite a project over the past 7 years, and we have raised the end of the boathouse over 3 feet so now the studs will not be in the water when it comes up in the Spring. Note that I sistered up all the studs with new PT 2 x 6's. (Our lake drops as much as 4 feet in the Fall/Winter, in anticipation of the huge Spring runoff. This particular Spring was pretty bad, and as many have commented from various places there was a lot of flooding. We survived, however, and the lake at its peak near the end of April was only about 10" above the normal Summer level. However, that peak was almost 50" above what it was at the beginning of April!)

 

[MossRoad]

If it was me, and I'm not recommending you do this, but think about the principles involved and it may help you devise a plan for yourself....

I'd first measure the distance between the two side walls at the top where the ceiling joists meet the walls to get the width measurement that you want to achieve between the walls at the bottom.

Then I'd put cables with turnbuckles between the sidewalls at the bottom of the walls. Don't know how many it would take. But better to use more to get an even pull than fewer and risk cracking. You might be able to work from back to front, also, slowly pulling the sides closer like a zipper.

Then I'd tighten the turnbuckles a couple turns every few days to pull the bottoms of the walls towards each other until they are the same measurement as you got when you measured the distance between the walls at the top. This could take days or longer, but I'd go slow. Wouldn't want to crack the wall studs or bottom sill plate, etc... Heck, it might not work at all as it took years to get bent. So pay attention to cracking and things like that. May require replacement of studs, removal of cross bracing, etc... which could lead to building collapse. You have to make sure the sill isn't fastened to the cribbing before you start tightening. Don't know if you can to just unfasten one wall from the cribbing and leave the other fastened to the cribbing or not. Probably depends how bad the walls are out of kilter. But you get the idea that you want to end up with two parallel walls top and bottom. Then fasten the sill plates back to the cribbing. And finally put several temporary braces across the bottom between the walls to keep the distances from changing during the next step.

So once the walls are parallel to each other, you have to make them at 90 degree angles to the ceiling joists.

This would require cables from the top of one corner of a wall where it meets the ceiling, down to the bottom corner of the opposite wall. You'd put the cables high on the wall that's leaning out and low on the wall that's leaning in. Again, don't know how many cables it would take. But you get the idea. Start tightening the turnbuckles a few turns at a time. It should bring the building back towards square. Once it's square, put in triangular gussets between the side walls and ceiling joists to keep it square.

Here's a link to a video that does something similar but for the leaning front-back angle. Same principle, just a smaller building.