January 2004 Work Report

Preservation Team, Virginia City, Montana

Funded by the National Park Service

Happy New Year from the Preservation Team! The Preservation Team had some personnel changes again this year. Cathy has taken a job with the Forest Service

in the Lake Tahoe area. The Team now consists of Jeff Cleverley, Jack Frost, and

Don Steeley.

January came in like a lion, -30 below. It can only get warmer, right?

Jack and Don removed the existing floor from the Jewelry Store building next to

Content Corner, to facilitate the installation of the rest of the stabilization for the

brick front of Content Corner.

Jeff finished the research on the seismic installation. He went ahead and ordered the seismic brackets and anchoring system. This consists of HD2A Simpson seismic brackets, and Hilti HVA adhesive and 304 stainless steel anchor bolts.

The process of installing the seismic retro-fit to the wood members was completed,

by Jack, and a consultation was scheduled with the Hilti Rep., Paul Gaffney, to help Jeff design a drilling system to drill anchor holes in the stone walls of Content Corner.

The HD2A brackets are bolted to the furred out framing in the building, on 2ft. centers, then the 304ss bolts are set into the stone walls with the HVA adhesive.

When the adhesive has set, the brackets are fastened to the anchor bolts with hex-head nuts. The furred walls will then be sheeted with ½” plywood to make them a ‘shear wall’, they will then be sheet rocked.

On the 15th Jeff, Julie, Pat and John attended the P&I Committee meeting in Helena from 10am to 2pm. Jeff gave a rundown on the NPS 2 grant to let the committee know what the Team would be working on this year.

Don started the tedious task of window preservation. This involves removing the windows from the building, and covering the opening with foam board. The windows are taken to the Pres. Shop, photographed, cleaned, then inspected by the Team to determine preservation treatment.

On Jan 19th Jeff met with Ken Seivert and Pete Brown to discuss the method of approach with the transfer beam in Content Corner. It was decided to ‘sister’ a gluelam beam next to the hand hewn original. This new beam will then carry the weight of the of the ceiling joists, as well as the hewn member. We then went to the Gilbert Brewery to discuss stabilization of the Barley Tower.

We need to dig a test pit inside the tower to determine how deep in the ground the the stone walls are, this will be done by a contract archy. This will help us decide which stabilization method will best work for us.

The last week of the month the Team lifted the joists that had fallen off the transfer beam back to their original elevation. We then thru-bolted 3”x 3” angle iron to the transfer beam. This in turn supports the ends of the joists that were completely off the beam.

Paul Gaffney will be here the 30th of January to discuss a drilling rig to help us drill the 300 holes in the stone walls of Content Corner for the seismic retro-fit.