Barboursville General Store

Barboursville General Store

Materials:

• Microbeam LVLs
• Simpson® strong tie hardware and connectors

Construction Techniques:

• We rebuilt this historic structure from the inside out. This historic property was built on no foundation, just beams placed into the ground. Over 100+ years, these beams began to rot. We temporarily supported the building, removed the front wall of the building, excavated 30” of dirt from the entire footprint of the building, and hauled this off to a nearby farm. 
• We were coordinating with Engineering Solutions, we set 27 footers ranging from 2’ to 3’ diameters.
• Installed a series of beams and engineered joice.
• Connected all exterior walls to new beams, and water sealed the exterior of the building.
• Removed the roof and dropped the engineered post from the attic down to the first floor, and braced all corners.
• Installed a new roof and closed in the front wall.

Design

• Construction had begun on this job without Commonwealth Contractors, halfway through the construction of this job, the county CBO made a foundation discovery and halted the job until they selected a contractor to restructure this building, ground-up
• Commonwealth Contractors was brought in with Engineering Solutions and approved to work on this site. Many people suggested demolishing the site, but the property owner cared for the historical significance of the building. Lots of discoveries, but we were able to walk away from this job with the building restructured, allowing for the property owner to continue with their original construction.
• Over the course of the project lots of locals visited to tell their stories about visiting the general store, from cattle runs, to pasture to pasture, or when visiting the railroad stops by the store. We found lots of neat things from the past, including tin signs advertising five cent groceries and produce.