Construction Update October 16 to 22, 2011

This has been a pretty productive week, in spite of the rain.

The first order of business was to set up the tallest wall on this west elevation.  We had it made last Friday, but we needed Shirley to help us... and she was in Victoria that afternoon.  Different than the other large walls, we could not build it and just stand it up.   After finally getting it vertical we had to rotate it 90 degrees but it was too heavy to just pound it into place.  Then I got the idea of putting a couple of dowels under it and while Shirley and Brendan kept it balanced I rolled very easily into place. Once again we couldn't have done it without Shirley.

With the wall in place we could now set up the 3-ply LVL beam on the roof ridge.

After making a couple of calls to Matt at Atlas Truss we agreed to modify the layout to give us the maximum roof area from the 15 TGI's we have for each side of the roof.  On two foot centres that gives us a maximum of 28 feet wide... so I revised the layout on the top of the wall.

The only problem was that our ridge beam on hand was 27 feet.  So with a couple of pieces of left over LVL which I cut down to the 11-7/8 inch height I did a diagonal splice which we glued and screwed and then let dry overnight.  See how this added an extra foot to the beam.

We staggered the three beams putting a full beam end next to the two spliced end and then gave it extra nails.  When I ran this creative solution past our beam engineer, he said he had never seen this done before, but in actual fact just one of the three LVL's could carry that outside TGI since it only cantilevered one foot past the bearing point.

It only took us a couple of hours to put the three beams into their final resting place.  Here Brendan is doing the final nailing on the most difficult part of the span.  We are now ready to finally put up the TGI's.

But there was lots of preparation on each TGI before we even lifted them to the roof.  First we had to cut both ends at the correct angle... then Brendan put on the special joist hangers.

We added 2x4 blocking to each end of the TGI's to make possible nailing on these hangers as well as facia  boards on the tail end.  Pretty cool hangers, eh?  They are are upside down sitting here.

We set up a 2x6 ramp in the window to guide the TGI's one at a time as I pushed them up to Brendan...

who pulled them from the window and wrestled these heavy 25-foot long joists around by himself...  poking one end out the window in order to turn it around before setting it down.

He then stacked them side by side ready to go up into place.

The next morning we set up all 15 TGI's and that afternoon we started to put down the 1/2 inch sheathing.  Shirley took this photo early the next morning.

I picked up some Titanium UDL vapour barrier which Brendan put down making this half of the new addition protected from water a little more.  See the 1/2 inch H-clips we used between the sheets midway between the JGI's.

It didn't take Shirley long to clean up and sweep this half of the studio.  Behind the 2x4 stud wall is a storage room about 6 x 22 feet with headroom from between 6 to 8 feet.

We also got some more 2x6's, which I used the tractor to lift up to the loft level... which is about 18 feet.

Being lazy I look for every chance I can to use the tractor to save me having to do too much lifting.

After finishing the first side of roof joists, we found that our main ridge beam needed to be 3 inches less... so I did the delicate task of cutting it off with my new chain saw.  It was like walking thru a mine field of nails and I was amazed I was able to detect each one and cut around them so I didn't wreck the teeth in the chain.

We then built the short wall with the clearstory windows on top of the beam.  See my selfie shadow?

Here is the view from the loft... the new dormer windows are framed... and the Mayne Queen is passing by on it's way from Saturna Island.  To see what the dormer will look like look at the previous post from yesterday, "A Flash of Light."

And this is the part of the loft that is over the bathroom and stairs.

This shows the roof from below on our circle driveway.

Another photo from the circle driveway from the other side.  In another week we should have the roof on the other side ready for the roofers.

This is what our place is looking like today if you were coming up the driveway from the cottage.

The Floor Joist Week

The first order of business this week was to remove the upper portion of the first three trusses of the garage so that we could set up the TGI's (engineered floor joists) on the beams.  Here Brendan is cutting thru the end gable truss after we had just completed removing all the shingles... hence the shadows from the roof strapping on the wall.

With the siding removed off the end gable and all the strapping taken off that section, we are ready to take off the end gable.

With a rope attached at the top of the gable, Brendan lowered it slowly and I was in position to receive it and take it away to separate the plywood from the 2 x 4's.  It came down perfectly!

Taking down the tops of the other trusses was pretty easy once they were cut off... Brendan just passed them down to me.  We then had to temporarily support those few trusses with 2 x 4's from the garage floor until we had some floor joists to attach them to.

After putting up the heavy LVL beams, these TGI's were light and much easier to handle... however, every one had to be cut to the right length first.

From the cutting table we lifted one end on to the beam...

I would then push the TGI just over half way so it would teeter into Brendan's hands.

And he would walk it up the ladder and set in place on the beam.

With an air nailer it made spiking the TGI's in place pretty easy and quick to secure.

At the mid point we had to assemble a 5-ply beam, which we used the tractor to carry these heavy LVL's (Laminated Veneer Lumber) to it's final resting place.

With a chain we kept the LVL attached to tractor bucket extension and Brendan walked beside it balancing it.

The tractor took the hard lifting out of this job.  Brendan just had to balance it into place as I drove forward putting the beam over the other beam.  We got to do this 5 times here... as this is the heaviest beam here.  With five ply's this one ends up 8.75 inches wide by 16 inches high and about 33 feet long.

On the other end the tractor lifts the beam close and Brendan takes up the final bit into place.

There is no doubt that the little tractor really helped to reduce the lifting we would have had to do.  It actually made setting up these beams fun!

This was a little sketch I did to figure out the bolt layout for this five-ply beam.  In addition to nailing each ply together with four rows of nails a foot apart... we also needed 5/8" bolts every 16 inches to secure these layers to make one very solid beam.  By determining the layout for the blots we could then nail with confidence knowing we wouldn't be hitting a nail when drilling holes for the bolts.  This helped me determine we needed to buy 24 10-inch 5/8" bolts with 24 nuts and 48 heavy washers.

It sure felt good to have most of the TGI's in place and this heavy beam in place... with the trim boards in place.  We left this centre beam un-trimmed for now... as this will carry a canopy roof that connects to the new master bedroom closet.  At this time I don't know exactly how that roof is going to come together.  There are a few possibilities of how much soffit it will have and how this will work best.

Shirley took this shot from her "Sunken Jungle."  It was a good week.

We still have the TGI's to put over the pantry and closet... but before we can do that we have some walls to build there as well as tear off the old eaves of the house in those areas.  With all the rain in the forecast we have left those eaves in tact as long as possible.

We pulled our car into it's future parking place on Saturday... where I took this photo of Shirley as we were heading out to an evening fund raiser for Pat Hennebery, the father of Brendan, who is suffering with Parkinson's Disease.   It won't be too hard to get used to this luxury.

Once again all the photos in this blog except this last one were taken by Shirley... who only charges me $1,000 for each one I use.