Word of the Day: Putrella

The other day, Bogdon was doing demolition in the boys' room (to expand the bathroom) and discovered that the wall he was smashing was also a partition wall in the upstairs property. As in, not our house. How did he discover this, you ask? Well, the exposed rear section of baseboard was a clue.

If you look in the upper center portion,
 that's baseboard

Yikes. This meant that we needed a system to keep the upper 40 cm of wall supported while removing everything underneath. Answer: a "putrella," otherwise known as an iron girder.

The remains of the wall have been held up by a jacking system

Winch installation

Today was the day the girder arrived, and of course we were agog to see how it would be installed in the upper story of the house. We were happy to see it on Umberto's truck parked in the space across from the portone, but it was obvious that he would not be able to navigate the vehicle-cum-girder assemblage into the courtyard.

Putrella!

The bathroom has officially been gutted

Fill-in materials

I called him (he was nowhere in sight, nor at Pianegiani...our first suspected location for him) to ask when he'd be unloading the girder because we wanted to spectate. He promised to call me at the correct time.

Sure enough!

Florence and I bolted over to have a look. The putrella had already been moved (by hand, Umberto told me) into the courtyard, and the winch was installed.

Strapped carefully, it was time to pull it up!

Girder all strapped up

Ready to go!

There was some serious grunting at this point

Note that they are on the delicate subfloor

Much effort, and it was inside the house, but not in position. We cringed as we watched them tramp all over the exposed subflooring (that we've been told not to walk on at all because of its fragility) bearing a heavy load, but they did it without falling into the kitchen (also not ours) below!

That upper slot is the destination

Love,

Alexandra