Framing Up

What an exciting and inspirational morning!! Today we had some more logs delivered (3 more loads to come later in the week) and after he had unloaded them, our favourite truck driver used his Hiab to put the trusses of frame 1 and 2 into position.  Nail biting stuff!! But let me talk through how we got to this point before I go into it…

Not long after I wrote the last blog, we decided (well Bernt decided and I reluctantly agreed with a big grimace on my face) to try and stand up the remaining wall and arcade posts of frame 1 by hand, without mechanic intervention. Bernt was confident and he obviously has a better grasp on physics than I do because his method worked perfectly without a hitch. We did enlist Dan's help (and ropes) on the day as I was content to watch on terrified from the sidelines. It was a slow process to tilt the frame up (already pegged together) but with the risk of its massive bulk falling, I wouldn’t have wanted it to go much quicker. We braced it in place so it wouldn’t fall over and got to work building the second frame.

Bernt’s ingenious tilting method.

Frame one just waiting for its truss.

It was slow going. Especially as we had to mill all of the timber, and we had some hot days in there during which we both gave up and productivity slipped a bit. But we milled and drilled and chiseled and sanded our way through frame 2. Bernt and I stood the wall and arcade posts of this one up ourselves. This time we did them one timber at a time (not all pegged together) but I still found the task scary because of the sheer weight of the timbers. The ones in the bedroom were fairly straight forward as we had concrete walls to help as stops. The veranda side was a little more scary but we managed it somehow, with the aide of scaffolding and engine crane. Then we worked on the door and window frames in the first bay, which tied frames 1 and 2 together and made them rigid. This meant we could take out some of the bracing. It was really exciting to see the character of the veranda emerging.

The wall and arcade post of frame 2 in the bedroom.                   

The wall posts extend out from the slab and will support the veranda.

To completely tie the frames together we put the ‘wall plates’ in. They are the timbers which stretch between the frames where the truss (the top triangle) meets the wall posts (the outer vertical timbers). On the veranda side this meant fitting in more ‘curvey’ bits, the rounded braces which give the whole timber frame its character (in my opinion) Putting the wall plates up was, again, daunting. They weigh maybe 150kg and we had to lift them about 3m in the air. We did it with the assistance of our trusty engine crane but that only lifts to less than 2m so it was a process of levering and ‘walking’ the timber up to different heights before we got it to where it needed to be.

The wall plate (the horizontal beam extending out towards the river) makes this part of the frame rigid so we can see it for the first time without bracing.

 

The intersection of two braces, or ‘curvey bits’ as I like to call them.

With all of those components in, the two frames were fairly self-supporting so we were ready to have the help of a crane to get the trusses up. As I mentioned in the last blog, there were some concerns with using a 28 tonne slew crane (namely, having the weight of it on our waffle pod slab). I rang Steve, who had delivered our Lucas Mill as well as all of our concrete blocks and logs on his Hiab truck (a truck with a crane attached to its back), and he seemed confident that his truck would manage the job. So we decided to do it in conjunction with our next log delivery. That meant we had to finish milling all of the remaining logs and clean up the milling area for truck access (two whole days of cutting all of the off cuts into firewood size and moving it). We also constructed two purlins (the timbers which join the trusses and will eventually hold up the roofing material) ready to be put in place on the day.

And today was that day!! Steve was here bright and early to deliver the logs. I thought Id really had enough of milling but when I saw them arrive I felt a little bit excited to get going on them again, Phew… because we have nearly 70 logs left to mill so I cant afford to have had enough yet!! And when he had unloaded them all, the fun began!

Stacey’s sculptural woodpile made from all of the off cuts from the milling, inspired by one a neighbour was building.

 

Steve drove the truck up onto the slab, he and Bernt talked through the logistics of what went where and how best to attach straps for lifting etc. Some of our concrete blocks had to be moved, but that was light work for the crane, and luckily the truck fit through the gap in the concrete block wall, with only 10cm to spare would you believe!! Then came time for the lifting which went really smoothly and then… the nail biting moment of truth, would everything fit together?...  Of course J Its almost like we had measured it or something! Haha… It was a moment of self-doubt though. And then the second frame truss went up and then a purlin on each side to hold them together. And everything fit!! So so exciting. And the end result is just breathtaking. It is sooo tall, the huge timbers we have been struggling with at ground level are so high up in the stratosphere that they look like matchsticks…J Well… exaggeration alert… but they do look much less bulky. It really will be an amazing space. But as I was talking to Steve’s wife about the benefits of owning such a crane, she mentioned that the forklift is much handier, to clean their 2^nd storey windows with and I suddenly thought; ‘How are we ever going to clean our windows??’… 

Truss being lifted by the Hiab.

 

Truss 1 fits perfectly!

 

Truss 2 being lifted into position. Note the truck squeezed through the gap in the concrete wall.

 

The mortises and tenons fitting snuggly together.

 

The purlins took a little more persuading to fit.

The view from the driveway, no wonder people keep stopping on the road! ;)

This shows that we have a huge amount of work ahead of us! 5 more frames to go.