In February and March of this year, we tackled the project of replacing the sill beam — the stout beam that sits above the stone foundation that the walls rest on.
Workers from Mid-Towne Construction exposed the beam to determine the extent of rotten wood. Then new beams were milled from black locust trees. The church was jacked up, rotten wood removed, and the new beams installed. Once the new beams were in place, Wes Masonry touched up the foundation again.
Your donations made this possible, so THANK YOU!
Bruce Michaelis, the President of our Board of Trustees, took photos of the work in progress. This shows Bruce and Steve from Mid-Towne Construction:
East side of church. The entire sill beam needed to be replaced:
A view of the crawl space under the oldest part of the church, looking from east to west, under the location of the organ (Northeast corner):
The East side of the church. The entire sill beam needed to be replaced:
New black locust sill beams were milled for the East side of the church:
The South side, West of the ramp. The old portion of church showing floor joist tails, most of which are OK. Some portions of the sill on this side of the building were replaced 20-25 years ago:
Steve from Mid-Towne was working on the sill under one of the two windows on the NW corner of the building. The sill on this portion is up near the windows because of the height of the basement wall. It was a surprise to Bruce to see the stone up under the window this high as much of the foundation (1884 addition) is covered by siding:
