Powell Central

Spruce Lodge Foundation Project - Phase 2

The Woodford Brothers' crew arrived in the spring, ready to begin the foundation repair project we had contracted them to do. David took several weeks off work and stayed heavily involved through the foundation project.

Foundation Work

Although we had well prepared the site for them, the camp itself was not quite ready. As usual, the ground under the camp was still quite frozen and work was delayed. However, they persisted and, though it took longer than expected, the project was well completed, in time for us to begin rebuilding the porch in July.

The contract included removal of the failing stone rubble and mortar foundation and construction of a new concrete block foundation around half of the living room and part of the west side. The crawl space below the living room was excavated, new interior footings and support posts installed and the floors leveled. Drainage was installed from the back wall of the house, where there was a dip in the bedrock, beneath the house, under the porch and into the front lawn. The stone column at the northwest corner of the porch was stabilized with a new footing. The biggest job involved excavating around the living room fireplace/chimney mass, lifting the 80 ton fireplace on steel rods pounded down to bedrock, and pouring a new concrete footing which encased the old rubble base and the steel beams used to lift it.

We could see right away that the crew from Woodford Brothers arrived.