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Tuesday, September 2, 2003
Walls and Trusses

At 0600, the crane arrived, followed closely by Bob, and by 0630 some initial preparations had been made (including moving some of the lumber piles in order to back the crane closer to the slab).  Before 0700 hit, the back wall had already been raised into place, and temporarily braced.  Two additional guys arrived at about 7, and the four of them proceeded to make short work of raising the remaining three walls.   By 0800, all four walls were standing and were partially secured in place.

Each wall was raised into place carefully by attaching straps to the crane from the top of the wall (through gaps in the framing on the front and back walls, through two of the window openings in the south wall, and attached to temporary eyebolts secured to the top plate on the north wall).  Then, it was a matter of raising the top edge of each wall while guiding the bottom plates into place.  Once each wall was standing, it was temporarily braced into place and secured, as applicable, to the adjacent walls.

Click here to see a series of photos of the walls going up.

Once that was done, the trusses came into place one by one, each one being nailed in place at the sidewalls and secured with horizontal bracing about halfway up the slope to hold them in the proper position.  Other bracing was added along the way as necessary.  By about 1500, the work was complete--all 21 trusses were in place and braced securely enough for the moment, and the weary crew packed up and went home, leaving me to pace around the barn and stare in admiration, awe, and wonder.

Click here to see a series of photos of the trusses going up.

After a day in which the site went from nothing to a full-sized barn (if only in framing) in only 9 hours, anything less was bound to seem insignificant.  Knowing full well the nature of construction, I was prepared for this apparent slowing of the progress.  Still, one always hopes things can magically go faster.

On this day, the extent of the progress was the completion of the sheathing on the two gable walls, not including the gables.  It didn't seem like much, but of course moving and installing all that plywood is time consuming and difficult.  Bob has a great set of high-quality staging and jack system that surely made the job easier, but it's still a big, tall building--and sheathing isn't the fastest job in the world to begin with.

After a rainy day on Thursday (no work was done), Bob arrived alone on Friday morning.  This meant that there would be no major work done on things like sheathing, but there was plenty that could be done alone in an efficient manner.  He began by setting up a taller set of jacks that would enable him to reach the higher parts of the gable, and then set to work on some cross-blocking between the roof trusses, gable framing (he admitted that he should have ordered two gable trusses, which come with all the appropriate framing installed 2' on center), and other smaller jobs.  This stuff all needed to get done, of course, and sometimes it's just good to have a day dedicated to knocking off that annoying punch list.  Next week, work in earnest on the roof sheathing and shingling can begin.  It didn't look like much, but progress is progress!

The anchor bolts, installed after the walls were standing, consist of hardened steel bolts and an insert.  Holes are drilled in the framing and into the concrete, the bolts (and inserts) are installed, and the nuts tightened.  As the nuts are tightened, the action expands the insert, firmly securing the fixture in place.

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