Gordon Boyer pumping the footings, Matt screeding and Kyle troweling.
The Dynamic Duo
Day 1, rain forecast. but its dry enough to get lines snapped.
It rained hard all day, but we stuck it out to get the floor framed and inspected. This is the first time I've framed a first floor over a crawlspace with 11 7/8" joists.
The wind blew the rain away and we were able to sheathe the floor in sunshine and T-shirts. Bryan and Kyle are snapping layout. Our goal is dead square and parallel.
This floor is a little chopped, so we snapped a control line through the house. That is what Bryan is holding Kyle's tape to.
If Kyle is 5'7", then how tall is Bryan? :-)
We use black chalk to snap layout. It will not wash away, necessary this time of year.
We use the Tajima chalklines because they leave a very crisp line.
We installed 4x blocking for this shearwall. Partly because it has a higher nailing capacity and partly because it is going to be very heavy to lift and I want the sheathing nailed well.
Current version of the tape gun on the left and the beta version of the new gun. It is much easier to load. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srjGKxdWSvs
The wall on the left is 15'11" to the plate line plus the gable. It is going to be very heavy to lift because all the wood is wet.
Plates for the 30° Bay. The rebar sticking up is for the UFER ground.
Nice and tight. The 4x6 is spec'd because there'll be a glulam that sits on top of the tall and spans the bay.
Kyle has great timing behind the camera :-)
The walls on this house are 9' 1" so we are using 9' sheets to catch the rim and sill and then ripping 8' sheets to fill in the top. This keeps the waste way down.
Blocking goes very quickly. We grab scrap and cut by eye. This keeps the jobsite cleaner too.
We find it much easier to lay the tape in long sections to keep it straight.
The tape needs 10-15lbs of pressure to activate. Using the pole means I don't have to bend over.
All the prep is done. Headers are cut, window packages cut, stacked and labelled. We are ready to frame walls. I think I cut the window packs out of the picture when I stitched them. The box van clued me in :-)
Just a few taller walls. We'll add sheathing later.
Layout for the winders.
2nd floor all framed.
I went ahead and drew all the treads and then numbered them and numbered my storypole. This made it much easier for me to keep track of.
I layed out the winders incorrectly a few days ago, so now I have the task of laying them out correctly and then keeping track of the correct layout. I went with a 7" inside tread depth and then 10" at the 1' walkline.
I've never had much use for a storypole, but it was invaluable for this stair. I marked out blocking heights and then could plumb up from each riser line. I cut all the treads out of scrap Advantech subfloor we had laying around. It was pretty straight forward.
The pencil lines are the correct layout and the other pencil lines and sharpie lines are wrong ;-)
I used a 5/4x3 for the storypole.
Each riser is numbered and the treads shown as well. You can see the difference in treads between 7 & 8. I use 1 1/8" OSB bull nose for the straight run treads.
I started at the top winding step and worked down. I had extra rim material from the 2nd floor joist pack.
I manhandled the box in by myself and decided that from that one down, I'd build them in place :-) It was a little heavy to hold and nail.
I checked each winder to make sure it is plumb off the layout on the floor.
I didn't get any more process pictures but here is the finished winder. I cut the straight set in record time to get it installed for finished pictures, but as I was cutting I cut off the top riser/tread by accident ;-( So I'll do that Monday.
This house has a few larger gables that if we framed them before the roof, will help speed up the roof framing.
Because the rafter lengths are longer than the plate stock we have, we put the plates together and then ran a string to keep it all straight. Then we just measured the studs in.
This was a bit of a bear to layout. The gable in the foreground is over the enry and dining room, no floor there. The middle section is over the den, no floor. So we built a temp platform quickly and threw down some extra subfloor and got a couple of the lines snapped then the rain moved in.
The rain stopped, so I used the backpack blower to blow off the sawdust and water, and then its dry enough to start taping.
Kyle will J-roll the tape behind me.
This is the entire scrap pile from those two walls.
Best looking guys on the jobsite (the only guys on the jobsite)
Ready to lift the double rakewall
The water from last nights rain just sheds right off the Zip.
We got the pick points right, that wall isn't bending at all.
There will be two gables that are the same span as the dining & den, and then also a gable on the right side of the garage.
Last rakewall on the house. I like it when its done, but I don't really enjoy framing rakewalls. Too much time bent over.
Bryan is finishing up the last of the blocks.
You can see how the roller really presses in the tape. Once this stuff is rolled, its on there for good.
Inside walls upstairs framed, and a couple of ridges thrown in to finish the day. We'll start framing the roof on Monday.
Material for hips and valleys.
All the valleys are doubled and we are going to bevel them. The longest valley is a little over 32'.
We snap a line for the short point of the bevel and then I use my finger as a guide. It is actually a very accurate way to rip.
We use the first valley as the pattern for the second one, including drawing the backing line.
Pile O' valleys.
This beam is acting like a ridge in the "trough" between the front gables.
We'll nail the valleys tight when we know absolutely they they are in the right place.
I was out most of last week with food poisoning. So we are in a hurry to get this thing sheathed, rain will back Wed. Most of last week was upper 50's and sunny.
Odd little spot for the window.
This picture shows how the bevels work on a double valley.
Not a great picture, but I drew full scale the walls where the 30° bay roof.
Hip all layed out.
KD 6x10 and 6x6 for the front two post and beam style "trusses".
I rarely get to use the 14" Big Boy saw, but today I pulled it out. I was adjusting the depth here.
This is the 1" housing for the 6x6 kingpost.
I learned by the end of the day, that if I set the chisel in every few slots from the saw cut, I can lean over the chisel and "break" the wood. It is much quicker and cleaner, but of course I won't need to do this again for awhile.
My plan was to set it up temp and scribe and fit the king post and struts, which worked well for the struts, but it collapsed before I got the kingpost cut.
Derrrrr........
6x10 Rafter with the housing cut into it for the angled strut.
I cut the "bottom chord" to it would half lap the beams. Kyle is just screwing them together with long TimberLoks.
Bryan is using 6" TimberLoks to "toe scre" the king post into the bottom chord.
This is what we assembled yesterday
For various reasons, 1st and last (I made a mistake), I had to splice two pieces together for the ridge.
I'm toescrewing the king post in before we lift in the beam.
I was short enough 6x6 for one of the struts, so we used the new DeWalt Rip Guide to make a 6x6.
Pass two.
They line up right on the money, just a quick pass with the Big Foot.
2nd "truss" done. This one turned out well. No one will see the TimberLoks, and the struts shouldn't twist over time.
We are sheathing over the 2x6 Spruce cardecking with 7/16" OSB.
A Gargoyle to scare the crows away . . . .
Gable City.
Getting ready to start the cricket framing. This is all 10-12 coming in and we'll frame the cricket at a 4-12
I'm drawing out the angles to get our rafter length and cut for that rafter where it lands on the 10-12, Bryan loved geometry so he's into the "ciphering" part.
We landed the rafter right over the rafter that was center, then we snapped a line for the sleeper, and we've marked 1 1/2" height square to the roof on the rafter. This tells us how far "downhill" to place the sleeper. Usually we'd land this rafter on the sleeper, but we had solid bearing.
This is where the rafter sits in the level valley. We then snapped the valley line and I placed the rafter square on the roof to get the angles X inches rise over 24" run since the cuts are long.
Another shot of the same thing, I snapped a line so I could place the square on that. In hindsight I should have just used a seam on the sheathing.
I layed the square in the valley to get the sleeper angle (not the valley angle. I could have used my CM but was in a square mode.
I didn't bevel the sleeper, but will next time. On the left is the angle for the valley. Doing all the ciphering instead of "boogerin" made this cricket very easy and quick to frame.
Top edge on the valley sleeper planes with the top edge of the "ledger sleeper".
Valley at the rafter. Edges planing
Here is my drawing. Being able to calculate the rafter first to locate everything else is the key to making these things go smoothly. Of course this was my 3rd drawing since I changed pitch once and brain farted on the 2nd drawing.
Long cuts but all the angles are on the money. 2x6 scrap there just to give a little more bearing
Started siding today while we wait for trusses on the other job.
Beto is rounding over the ends of the decking with a 1/8" roundover.
First time using the Tiger Claws and they worked great. Seems a decent way
The Tiger Claws leave a 3/16" gap.
Just enough of a gap to get the driver bit through.
The DeWalt guide is worth its weight in gold. We use this thing all the time.
That is the bottom of the decking.
We are back to finish this house. We have two customs come first before we finish this one (its a spec)
Tapered columns that will get rock on the lower portion and the upper will get sheathed with LP soffit material.
The lower portions are sheathed with whatever is lying around. I ordered 16" x16' long LP Smart Side soffit to rip the tapers.
We framed into the attic so there are actually two closets for this room, or one can be a playroom.
Bonus room
Since we had to frame the ceiling for the dining room (below), might as well use the space as storage or a playroom
