Attic photos again to help everyone appreciate the magnitude of the repairs taking place in our Courthouse. These first three pics are knee braces that are being installed and anchored to the north wall and welded to the first Jack arch beam. All those beams are in turn welded to each successive beam for additional strength. The last two pics show some massive angle and C channel beams bolted to the inside of the northeast gable end. That steel is anchored to a chimney to stabilize it. In an earlier post, I showed you the exterior gable stones that were restored. You will never see this interior work, but this is necessary work to keep those stone/brick walls from moving…and they were moving and being pushed out. This work is all on the north-facing side. North faces suffer more moisture and frost damage on any building. To make conditions worse, we had a very large tree very close to the north wall. Do you remember that big beautiful oak tree that was on the north side of the courthouse that those dang commissioners cut down? That tree had large branches rubbing on the roof and wall causing surface damage. The roots had plugged a drain and were pushing on the foundation, as well as holding moisture, which caused years of accelerated decay. It had to come down. However, we did have the logs sawed into boards and we will make some beautiful benches to place in some of the public hallway space.
– Ben Carpenter, Perry County Commissioner
Originally posted to Facebook
