Category: Warehouse

I couldn’t have measured these steps better if I had tried, but I didn’t. They were made by a friend of mine who runs a metal fabrication business. This must be the hand of God, but it seems like there was earth bound help involved Like the man asked what my building needed, and one of my sons said “steps, here are the dimensions”.

Whatever the case, as I said, perfect fit. He said that he was making a lot of steps for a big job, and that this was the sample piece he showed the customer. I did see a whole bunch of steps he made on a trailer, like 200 feet or something.

In the first picture, I added two pressure treated boards as a post, because the siding wasn’t enough support.

In the next picture, I’ve leveled two concrete blocks. The picture doesn’t show it well, but there’s quite the optical illusion when standing next to them. The one in the hole looks too deep.

Next, I’m fitting the pieces together, I haven’t bolted things tight yet.

Here’s a picture from the next morning, after the tools were put away.

I’ve had several developments with the warehouse building. First, is the quality of the wood. Years ago, they kept only the choicest parts of a tree, and discarded the rest. In the first picture below, you can see the side of the building. The grade of wood doesn’t show really well, but notice how few knots there are. Large knots drastically reduce the strength of a piece because the knot interferes with the straight grain pattern.

In the next two pictures, there’s a big knot, and a smaller knot. Notice how in the top picture, the upper grain in the board continues past the knot, even though it must curve some to do so. On the lower part of the board, the grain bends up toward the knot, and ends at the knot. This is very weak. In the second knot picture, the grain above and below the knot continue past it. This is much stronger.

A friend told me to come by and go through his stored paint, as he has a lot left over from various jobs. I found what I think is enough to put a nice paint finish on this building. Wood this old will probably absorb a lot of paint, but I have 8 or 9 gallons. I’m painting it white with green trim, to match the house it sits next to. #warehouse #history

I was given this building two or three years ago, and have been trying to move it here ever since. It’s finally here, and I’m trying to find information about it. The man who gave it to me described it as a “WW2 era portable wood building”. My search has turned up nothing, but it sure is good to have it here at last. #history #warehouse