Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and nothing gets cut until the numbers say so.
Everyone's favorite question. We check joist direction, what's stacked above, and what the foundation says below — in the crawl space with a flashlight, not from the couch with vibes. When an engineer's stamp is warranted, we bring one in. The beam gets sized by math, not by “my cousin said a 2x8 is probably fine.”
Before a load-bearing wall comes out, temporary stud walls carry the load on both sides. Then the wall comes out, the header or LVL beam goes in on proper posts with a load path down to the foundation — every pound has to land somewhere, and we decide where on purpose.
New walls plumb and on layout, door and window openings with correct headers, kings, and jacks. Nailing patterns to code because the inspector and us are, weirdly, on the same team. Crowned lumber turned the right way so your walls don't develop a personality.
Footings dug below frost line (Missouri frost heave lifts lazy decks like a forklift), ledger bolted and flashed — flashing is the whole ballgame, an unflashed ledger is a slow-motion collapse with a patio set on it. Joists hung, blocking installed, boards gapped even, rails that don't wiggle. Wiggle-test welcome.
House wrap lapped right, siding hung with expansion room, soffit and fascia closed up tight so the squirrels file their eviction appeal elsewhere. Caulked and painted where the product wants it.
Old units out, openings squared, new units set plumb-level-square, shimmed at hinge points, foamed low-expansion (high-expansion foam bows jambs — rookie tattoo), flashed and trimmed inside and out. Drafts: concluded.
The full structural and exterior catalog — the bones and the skin.
Free walkthrough, honest structural talk, and math done by guys who actually kept their textbooks.
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