The Lift, Part 1
UPDATE ON THE VIEW POINT INN RENOVATION
FEBRUARY 9, 2022
Last Thursday was gorgeous and sunny, a rare find during Oregon winters — perfect day for “the Lift”!
The historic View Point Inn being prepared to lift up in order to dig and pour a new foundation.
The historic View Point Inn needs to be raised so the earth can be excavated and a solid foundation poured for the below ground spa facilities. It will also serve to strengthen the integrity of the building as a whole. The current basement is only six feet high in places and the current foundation consists of a mix of unstable concrete, stones, and hardened earth — more like an old cake!
Square Nail Carpentry and White Dog Construction worked hard over the last couple weeks to prepare the building with wooden joists, then readied the building with 27-yard long red steel girder beams by placing them across the length and width of the structure’s base.
The trick was to continually adjust the weight and balance as the building was slowly elevated on all sides by hydraulic lifts. Some of the team was stationed inside the building 😳 as it began to rise in order to monitor structural integrity of the building.
The process started and stopped over several hours as the team investigated the integrity of the building and the wooden beams. The old historic View Point was pretty vocal! Her bones creeked as sections of her were slowly lifted away from the foundation.
After about an inch of air was visible in the front of the foundation, the procedure halted as some rotted out load-bearing beams were discovered in the southeast corner, likely due to road runoff over the last 5-6 years as the building lay vacant.
The process is now paused until the team determines how to reinforce the sections that are stubbornly gripping the foundation, have no solid body, or are too rotted to raise with the rest of the building.
What a cliffhanger! Stay tuned for Part II of The Lift, when we can hopefully report the building has been successfully elevated so a deeper foundation can be dug.
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The Lift, Part I
These images show how the team prepared the building for The Lift.
