Affleck House Analysis

[g.dorn]

I am also wondering for the battered walls

if a standard plywood sheet is 1200 x 2400 - 4' x 8' - and the sheet was installed vertically, then any wall that is no higher than 8' , the plywood sheet has no issues,

but if the wall is higher than 8' - did they use longer sheets , or did they have some fancy way of jointing sheets together.

Even though the cladding boards add to the thickness and stiffness of the plywood core, I can't image they add much to the stiffness at a plywood join.


Further to this - if a wall was less than 8' did they typically use plywood as the core , and if the wall was over 8' did they use a a 1"board - ala Jacobs 1

Tom - maybe thats a question you could ask Butters.

[g.dorn]

This Lloyd Lewis Section is a real interesting read.
have a look at the Living Room section
its says "12 x 2 cantilevered beams see sheet 2" - err cantilevered from what - they appear to have no fulcrum point?

Is there a Floor framing plan for Lloyd Lewis?

[g.dorn]

SDR
this Sonders construction photo you have - do you have it larger?

It appears to show how the roof is made

[SDR]

No, sadly, I don't. I don't know where that photo came from, in fact. Maybe it's searchable.

Yes, it certainly does. I think one of the sticks protruding at left is probably lying on top of the roof framing. Take that away, and you have the triple-2x4 joists, with some of the 2x4 sub-fascia pieces in place. But why there aren't more shadows being cast on them by the joist ends---and what that finer-stepped strip is at the right---I can't say. In any event, it's clearly this:

[g.dorn]

Footings

What sort of Footings were constructed at Afflecks - deep trench with gravel fill then conc cap then brickwork?

I presume that part of the country suffered from annual snow/frost and freeze/thaw cycles

Fro that matter, is there any photos of it under snow?

[g.dorn]

should have looked first

snow





more at A. LeDuff flickr album titled Frank Lloyd Wright Affleck House in Winter
https://www.flickr.com/photos/annettele ... 4607877535

[SDR]

Another enduring mystery: Wright's insistence on (and remarkable success with) this unorthodox foundation. A trench---not necessarily to or below the frost line---pitched to drain, sometimes with a perforated drain pipe, filled with crushed stone well tamped, upon which a masonry wall was built.

Was this ever permitted by an American building code ? How often was this rejected by a building department ? How many Usonians were built with this foundation ?

Van Dusen

Pope

Goetsch-Winckler

There are houses that were drawn with conventional inverted-T poured footings; Bott, Mossberg, Buehler . . .

[Tom]

Never really considered snow build up on the decks of Wright's work before.
It would need to be shoveled everytime, no?
Argh - and then there is the roof deck ... on top of the lvingroom.

[Tom]

BTW,
Fred Butters work on the Affleck House that is documented on his website is all about foundation work.
They had to excavate to stabilize NE corner. In some cases they found no foundation - just brick on soil.
In other cases they found foundations with no walls on top.
Go figure.

[SDR]

Have you linked us to his website, Tom ?

S

[Tom]

Sorry - GDorn linked it back on page one.
Here 'tis:

http://www.butters-law.com/affleckhouserestoration.html

[Tom]

Just got off the phone with Fred Butters - pretty amazing guy.
He has been a key figure in the initial and ongoing restoration of Affleck.
He certainly is deserving of recognition by anybody concerned with conserving the work of FLLW.

He's going to send me some material which I will post here.
The conversation is on going.

I did ask about the assembly of the suspended concrete floor.
He has seen a portion of this from looking up from one of the rooms underneath.
He reports that the concrete floor appears to have been poured in place on top of formwork consisting of boards, which were then stripped.
He says that the floor is not uniform in thickness but consists of dropped beams integral to the slab!
Furthermore, he states that the heating pipes are not integral to the slab but are suspended beneath it without insulation.
He says the pipes appear to be 2" dia.
How Wright gets all that in there is beyond me.
"Curiouser and curiouser"

Fred - did not claim or imply this, but from what I can tell Affleck would be in bad shape without him.
When they started work they had no money. His Grandfather (maybe it was his Dad) had taught him how to use a lathe.
So with cypress scrap from the house he made pens and sold them ($300) raising $40K faster than he'd ever thought possible.
That's how things got started.

Also have stories about the kitchen and the lighting above the LR soffits - but later.

[Tom]

Butters sent me a .pptx file of the Affleck Restoration.
How would I post that here?

Butters also said the fireplace drew very well, but they've had to cap it -cause it's illegal for them to use it in it's present occupancy classification.

He also has an Affleck Facebook page where he updates progress on a regular basis.

[g.dorn]

groovy

he has roof framing photos on it

kitchen roof
gees they look like 4 x 2 joists with T + G board as the decking
joists must be spanning the shortest span! -as there appears to be a change in direction

https://www.facebook.com/AffleckHouse/



interesting that the deck awning has multiple rafters - were some added ? also note the sagging in the window frame for the non posted rafters
- I wonder if thats from the extra weight of the extra rafter?

[g.dorn]

so there is 2 facebook site

this one has visitor photos by the looks of it

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gregor-S ... 8718629390