On Thursday the ride engineer was up at the worksite looking things over as the first ride was installed. The posts holding up the porch roof caught his eye as he walked by and made him take a second look. I smiled and assured him they had indeed been engineered. His comment was that they weren't the standard way of doing things. But then again few things at this site are done the standard way. We are building to a visual standard that also has to be plenty strong.
The posts holding the porch roof up are in fact a great deal more work than doing things the standard way, Each post is carefully cut and welded, designed to both hold the roof up and yet do it in a way that will make everyone take a second look. While a regular straight post could be built and installed in minutes, each of these will take days to complete. The magical effect will be worth the effort by far.
The structural steel inside column is designed to support the beam and transfer the forces to the bottom. A decorative log shape is welded around this structure using pencil rod.
Our crew then wrapped these forms in galvanized diamond lath. The fiberglass reinforced concrete will be troweled on and then the bark and wood texture will be carved in. The last step is our paint and glazes to make it all look real.
There are nine posts in all, each one very unique.
The posts, like everything else we are building, will help tell our story in a visual way.
-grampa dan