Here we are with another amazing week of work completed. This week it's time to raise the walls where the control room and the live room face each other. This was a particularly troubling week as we knew that one of the walls was going to be the largest of the walls that get raised. We were counting on having six people present and at the last minute one person was not able to make it thus leaving us with five people. The larger of the two walls that you will see raised was calculated at weighing about 1,000 pounds with a height of 14 feet.
As you can imagine, being short one person and a monster wall to raise with no support for the wall on either side was stacking up to be a recipe for disaster if the wall got away from us. As you can see the floors are decoupled thus leaving a place for the wall to slip in to which would have been disastrous. This would have meant part of the floor would be destroyed should it have slipped in the crack because we were not going to be able to raise it back out.
We started by putting the boots in place to butt up the bottom end of the wall so we could raise it. Once we raised the wall then we had a monster wall sitting two inches off the ground that needed to be walked off the boots. Once we walked the wall off the boots we then had to line it up on the markings set forth by Dave. This effectively meant that we would be inching the wall one way or the other. As we would look up from time to time we could see the wall swaying a bit at the top. That was scary in its own right. Once we got the wall in place it was then held by four people while Dave hurried to get the braces in place to stabilize the wall. Ultimately, we managed to raise the wall without any injuries or damage to the construction already completed.
Now here is where I have to give credit where credit is due because if it weren't for these guys none of this would have happened. First and foremost, I need to reiterate the sheer awesomeness of Dave Del Valle. He is one hell of a builder and he does a phenomenal job at staging things.
This does bring me to Anthony Rodriguez who has been in my corner for a very long time and he is always there to lend a hand without question or hesitation.
Then there is the guitar building phenomenon Chris Forshage. Not only is he a supremely nice person he was there when I desperately needed an extra person to raise a wall.
Then there is Dan Salcido who has also never hesitated to lend a hand and has always been in my corner when I needed some help.
The guys in the last picture are people that I hold in high regard. I sincerely believe that I am the luckiest person on the planet because I have so many people that are always there to lend a hand when I am in need of help. These people are simply awesome and the only way to show my gratitude is to say THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!
I hope you enjoy these pictures.
14 foot wall minus the drywall. This is the wall that was calculated weighing about 1,000 pounds.
This wall is 11 feet tall and much more manageable.
The bottom of the decoupled walls/rooms.
The top of the decoupled walls/rooms.
Aerial view.
Anthony Rodriguez, Chris Forshage, Eric Meyer, Dave Del Valle, Dan Salcido
