Before I began, I tied open the tarps covering the doorway and windows. The wildflowers behind the JayBee (to the north) are quite pretty at the moment. The bees were appreciating them a lot today.
I began rafter installation by hanging a joist hanger centered over every 24" o.c. stud in the west end of the house. (I had originally intended that these joist hangers would attach each rafter to the ridge board. What was I thinking?! They would never work for that. So, I switched things around. These will hold the tail ends to the walls. The hurricane ties I purchased as wall connectors will actually attach the upper ends to the ridge board; I'll use one on each side of each rafter.) I used three nails and one screw on each hanger. (Nails have more shear strength than screws.)
I put some boards on top of the ceiling joists--to give me something to stand on.
I wrestled the first rafter into place. Just sitting there--without fasteners yet--it looked kind of perfect.
It got more complicated as I began to fasten the rafters because the weight of one rafter deflects the ridge board just enough to make it hard to attach the rafters straight and square. Clearly they have to be installed in pairs. Finally, I had the first pair fastened.
I cut four more rafters...
...and installed them.
The beginning of a roof!
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Oh, this is great! And what a relief to see that you're safe way up there, using the ceiling joists as a floor :-)
ReplyDeleteHow many pairs of rafters will there be?
Will you have a long weekend next weekend, too? (I thought you'd said something about two 4-day weekends at the end of this month, but I guess I'm confused.)
So sorry about your thumb, though :-( Good point that a few days at the office might be helpful for recovery!
If the roof was going to be a simple, straight, gable-to-gable roof, the roof would have 14 pairs of rafters. However, the living-room area of the house will have two additional gables turned perpendicular to the rest of the roof, so there will be angles and complications. Of course! Would I do it any other way?
ReplyDeleteYou're only confused because my plans keep changing. This weekend that just ended was originally supposed to be a 4-day weekend. It became a 3-day weekend when I worked a 16-hour day on Thursday. I had planned a 4-day weekend for this upcoming weekend; we'll just see what actually happens.