August 2008                                               Click on (most) images for a larger view.

We are in the process of re-staining the glulams for the upper roof - which will be lifted on Tuesday!  We've hired a crane and operator to lift them, I will guide them from the ground and Thomas will receive upstairs and put them in to place.  We will spend all day tomorrow reviewing the sequence of events so that we are comfortable and safe the day of the lift.  Thomas started working out the design for the staging which will be 17ft up spanning the 36ft of the north wall.  He is amazing how he thinks through all the details of leverage, strength characteristics of lumber (compression, tension, and flex (see I'm learning!)) weight, assembly, disassembly...  I put in my ideas every once and a while as I become more confident in my learning/understanding.

Boy did we hustle!  Mike said he was sweating just watching us!  It was great to be so totally focused on our tasks at hand.  The adrenaline was pumping!  I was so elated afterwards that I could hardly contain myself!  We embraced and danced around with jubilation and I exclaimed, "we really can do anything!"  How proud we are of our accomplishments!

... I can't stop grinning at what we did today!  Even though we were exhausted, I was too excited to rest or ice muscles and scrapes and bruises, so when the opportunity presented itself to borrow our neighbour's pick-up we jumped at it and went over to Slegg's to pick up some lumber and other materials to build the gable ends and wall bridging between the beams.  Then we can get to the roof-decking...

 
Then we built and erected the scaffolding to work on while we are putting up the roof decking and insulation sandwich and final roof layer.  As I said earlier, Thomas is remarkable when it comes to designing jigs and scaffolds; he utilizes his understanding of  the stresses, weight, and strength involved in designing the structures we need to be safe and comfortable to work on while building.  While we construct these structures, he has pretty well been the one to be up there putting it together while I cut and get other materials and tools we need.  So he gets used to the heights as he is working on it.  I then have to get used to it while we are doing the job it is intended for (and I'm not very good with heights, but it is amazing what you can get used to when you realize that it is safe when you are careful and keep focused on what you are doing).  However, while putting up the decking we decided it was safer and more efficient for him to be up there installing the decking while I'm below cutting, staining, passing him decking up (via pulley system) and getting him tools etc.  The structure is 5-1/2' wide but 3' of it are under the beams leaving a 2-1/2' "cat-walk" which would not be comfortable for two people to maneuver on while wearing harnesses on attached to lines to the top of the roof - we'd spend our time tangled up with each other!  So, I will have to get my height legs and stomach used to it when we get to the installation on top of the decking.
 

 
August 20th .... The starter strip is critical to get accurate as it "starts" the squaring of the whole roof.  This is what determines the distance the fascia board sits out from the beams (the beams do not line up exactly across the bottom or top of the roof, so we have to average them and create a spacing with the starter strip for the fascia to attach to. 

 Then every few rows we measure up from the starter strip to make sure we are parallel to the bottom so the roof doesn't become askew.  

Finally we had some good weather and have finished the decking of the upper roof! The careful measuring on each course, keeping the distance to the eve uniform within 1/16th of an inch, has paid off. The top edge or peak is perfectly straight and parallel to the eve and the south wall over which it extends. That means the fascia board will be straight as well.

Laura's diligence on the chop saw and careful planning of decking layout to keep scrap to a minimum also paid off. Half way through the process she was concerned that we may not have enough of our precious FSC certified roof decking to finish the job.

Painfully she sorted all the remaining sticks by size and determined that to finish the job we would have to change our pattern. Our original intention was to center all the joints under the standoff strapping to be installed later. Now we discovered that many of the pieces were  9' 7" and 10' 7" long which meant that to make them conform to our 12 inch centers we would be wasting 7" for every stick.

Since it was my job to draw the pattern, Laura sent me back to the computer to figure out a way to incorporate these off-lengths. The challenge was to insure that gaps were properly staggered and there would never be two gaps between beams in adjacent courses.

By the time we got to the last course we had just 42' of decking to make a 40' strip. This last strip proved to be as thin as trim. It was actually made of pieces of decking ripped to about 1-1/2 inches wide with a 27 degree bevel to match the relief of the glulam beams. 

Once we had made all the calculations and cut a little sample to make sure the angles were right I thought we were ready to rip the five pieces and install them. Now way, Laura cautioned me. First we take that sample piece up on the roof and actually fit it in place to make sure it is the right size. Good thing we did, for I had miscalculated and the piece as too narrow. We would have wasted our last bit of wood if it were not for Laura's diligence.

There we were, well into dusk, squinting in the last bit of daylight, hanging of the edge of the peak, gluing and screwing the last strip into place.

Next to do - the roof sandwich (insulation etc.) before the metal roof goes on...

applying glue to decking trim...

and screwing it into place!  DONE!

Go to next month...

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