Fascia Board - Finishing the Roof Framing

The fascia is the board that is nailed to the outer-most ends of the roof trusses. It provides a nice finish and more support tot he roof. The roof sheathing is nailed down staring at this board.

In the picture we are looking almost straight up the front wall of the Cottage at a corner, so you can see how the fascia is squared at the corners.

Once the fascia is covered with a vinyl flashing the soffet will be install from the inside edge of the fascia board over tot he top of the wall.

But that isn't for a week or so...

Not one Nail in all of the Roof Trusses

It is amazing!

There isn't one single nail in all of the trusses as they arrived from the manufacturer. What holds the various element of each truss is these nailing plates which are pressed into place at the factory. There is of course different sizes but the design is the same for all of the nail plates.

These connectors have greater strength in the same plane as the truss but any other direction it is quite weak. We discovered this when we were heaving the trusses up on the framed walls. We had to be sure to support the trusses as we slid them up on to the walls.

Basically the process to get the trusses up on the roof, when a crane is not available is to put one end up on the wall and then slide the rest up by shear muscle power. The trusses are all laying flat during this procedure, and prone to bending right at the nailed plate joints - so careful support during the process is needed.

We were fortunate to have only broken one of the trusses and it was a minor fix to get it back into the right shape.

Hanging on at 45 Degrees

Part of the deck is at a 45 degree angle to the Cottage. This means that the deck joists will be at a 45 degree angle to the ledger board. hence standard joist hangers, at 90 degrees, just won't work.

The solution is to use joist hangers that have a 45 degree angle. The picture illustrates the ones that we used. These were actually made of heavier material than the standard 90 degree ones.

You probably have noticed that these hangers seem a bit smaller - and they are. Technically the 45 degree hangers I used are for 6- and 8-inch joists, so I shouldn't be using them solely to hold the 2x10 joists. To strengthen the joint I added three 3.5-inch framing nails above the joist hangers.

The material on the deck is temporary decking of plywood so that we could use the deck to access the main floor walls, assemble the gazebo trusses and install the tyvek.

Building a Roof by the Labels

The trusses came with a set of plans and drawings. The drawing helped to decide what order the trusses needed to be assembled.

The drawings also indicated where to place additional bracing. Bracing between and among the trusses is very importsant to provide that additional lateral stability and strength to the roof.

In addition, the truss builder, Kent Trusses, placed stickers on the chords where the lateral bracing needs to go. "Chord" is truss lingo for the wood beams between the foot (bottom) and other parts of the truss.

There were stickers to indicate which trusses to laminate. "Laminate" is more truss lingo to indicate that two identical trusses need to be nailed together to build a thicker, stronger load bearing truss.

Not shown, was a third sticker to indicate the exact location on a truss where the load bearing wall needs to be.

And to make it even easier the stickers were colour coded:

• Green for "Brace"
• Blue for "Laminate"
• Yellow for "Load Bearing"
  

Beam me up Scotty!

Pardon the Star Trek phrase...

The deck for the gazebo is sixteen feet in diameter, and to create a clear space under the deck - with no supporting beams in the middle - the major beam under the center of the deck needs to be almost sixteen feet long.

That calls for one massive beam and the supporting posts to support it. With a deck this size a lot of people could be on the deck at the same time - like 20 or 30 or more...

We laminated the beam using four engineered LVL beams. Each beam was 1.75 inched thick, 12 inches high, 15 feet 8 inched long, and was supported at either end by an 8" x 8" pressure treated post.

The external end of the beam is secured to the post using steel straps (missing from the picture) as well as to the two adjacent posts on either side via a beam connected with a joist hanger.

The cottage side of the beam will also be secured to its post using steel straps (missing from the picture). The post rests on a concrete pad buried four feet in to the ground, and is secured to the cottage framing using countersunk eight-inch lag screws.

Stairway to Heaven!

Up to this weekend getting up into the Cottage was either a running leap onto the front porch or using the small step ladder as a makeshift stairs up to the porch. Both or which were difficult when you are carrying tools or materials.

... Plus using a step ladder like this isn't exactly the safest way to use a step ladder - they even print warnings all over the step ladder to this effect.

And the stairs kept disappearing when someone needed to use the step ladder...

So I broken down this weekend and built a set of temporary stairs. It was quite easy really! I cheated a bit by first buying a set of pre-cut stringers - three in fact. Stringers are the supports for the boards that are used for the steps themselves.

My my quick and dirty steps have six steps, and except for the pre-cut stringers were made from strap lumber I had. I made the steps 36 inches wide using a combination of a 2x4 and a 2x6 for each step. Scrap wood was used to level and support the bottom of the stringers, and I secured the tops of the stringers to the beam of the porch using a few 3.5 inch screws for each.

With another piece of scrap lumber secured to the posts at about 36 inches, I have a completed stairway. And it only took about an hour to do it.

Just in the nick of time as well... and I have to confess I had a second reason for the stairs. My Mom and Dad came up for a visit on Saturday. My Dad has been very curious on how the work was progressing, and I guess he just couldn't wait any longer...

That is the second reason. My Dad is 8 months short of being 80 years old, and while still quite active, I thought having the stairs would make his tour of the cottage so much more enjoyable.

Conquering My Fear of Heights

My one true phobia is heights!

I understand that at times it is quite irrational, but as phobias are they rule the roost. So you can imagine the fun I had building the beams over the lakeside deck pictured at the right.

The picture actually does do justice to the actual height. It appears only to be two stories tot he top of the post where the tow beams pictured here needed to be attached. What you don't see is that this edge of the property drops off dramatically below this corner of the deck. It is more like 3 or even 4 stories looking down perched on the top of a ladder while nailing the beam in place.

Fortunately, my sons don't share my fear of heights, as you can see Nathan, relaxing during a break. He is perched on the window sill of the picture window in the livingroom in this picture...

Pressure-Treated Wood Posts

A portion of the roof, that over the gazebo, is supported by gigantic posts. The posts we are using are 6"x6" by 20 foot pressure-treated posts. These posts are supported at the bottom by concrete piers and extend through the deck off the main floor, and support the roof over the deck.

In the pictures you can see six pressure-treated ( the green coloured posts) posts: five 6x6 posts and one 8x8 post.

The 8x8 post is required for a special purpose. It is used for supporting another huge laminated beam - like that used inside the cottage to support the floor joists - except here it is used to support the deck joists.

These posts are massive. It takes at least two of my strong strapping sons to move them! The task of righting them on to the concrete piers was a difficult one.

Here is how we got them up:

1. First we carried each post to its respective concrete pier
2. A hole was drilled in one end of the post. This hole was a 3/4 hole which is just enough to allow the pin sticking out of the concrete pier to fit. The pin serves to keep the post in place.
   
3. Then we cut a piece of asphalt shingle to fit the top of the concrete pier. The asphalt shingle serves to insulate the wood post from the concrete pier thus preventing water or moisture from entering the wood. This is just like a the sill gasket we described in an earlier post to isolated the wood walls from the concrete footings or concrete wall separates the p
   
4. The end of the post with the pin hole was positioned so that as we raised the post the pin would enter the hole.
5. Then comes the tough part... Three of us - through shear muscle power - raised the post, using various assisting tools like rope and 12-foot lengths of 2x4.
   
6. Once raised into a vertical position we leveled and secured the post temporarily. Our main securing technique was to use 12- or 16-foot lengths of 2x4 to either attach the post to a nearby object like a previously secured post or the cottage itself. We would generally use two supports set at 90 degrees to temporarily secure the post. If we didn't have an object to secure it two then we would use two 2x4's set on either side of the post as about 45 degrees set in to the ground.
7. Once the work of leveling and the post was temporarily secured, it was time for a break!
8. Permanent securing consisted of connecting the post to the adjacent post using a 2-ply 2x10 beam, and then, securing it to the ledger board on the Cottage using a 2x10 joist. In this way the post was completely tied into the deck substructure.
9. This process was repeated for every post, securing post after post until the entire deck skeletal substructure was completed.
10. Once the skeleton of the deck substructure was in place then we measured out and installed joists on a 16-inch center-on-center pattern.
11. The whole process was repeated again at the very top of the posts for the posts that extended the full 20 feet. This set of beams formed the structure on which the roof would be secured.

Hence, the two-story posts were secured in three places:

• At the bottom by the pins from the concrete piers
• at the middle by the deck substructure, and
• at the top by the beams forming the support for the gazebo roof.
  

The remainder of the posts of the deck substructure only extended to the deck. Actually the posts extend three feet beyond the top of the deck so as to provide posts to which the railing will be attached.

Stay tuned: in a future post I will provide pictures of the deck substructure and the completed deck, with the gazebo...

How Anchor Bolts work....

Anchor bolts are what secures the wood part of the cottage to the concrete part - the wood framed walls to the concrete walls. I illustrated the anchor bolts in a previous post, (Anchor Bolts... Holding the Cottage down!), and promised an explanation.

The diagram at right illustrates the parts of this system. The anchor blot is set in the concrete before it hardens with its threaded part exposed. When a wall is framed, holes corresponding to the locations of the anchor bolts are drilled in the sill or bottom plate of the wall before it is raised. (see... Framing, the 1st Wall on the 1st Floor and 4 Steps to Rasing a Wall: Square, Prepare, Lift, Level and Brace)

The wall is raided onto the bolt, and secured with a washer and nut. A critical part of the assembly is the sill gasket, which is the material which isolates the wood from the potential dampness of the concrete, avoiding mildew, rot and all sorts of bad things when wood gets wet.

Ledger Board - Getting all Decked Out...

There is a deck that surrounds about 50% of the Cottage. It starts with the porch on the front and goes all the way around the side to the lakeside.

The first step in building the deck is attaching a ledger board to the Cottage. The purpose of the ledger board is to support one end of the joists that support the deck boards.

It is important that the ledger board be attached to an element on the Cottage framing that can actually support the weight of the deck and the anticipated weight of the occupants on the deck. This is usually the floor structure of the first floor - and is exactly what we did!

The ledger board is attached using lag bolts- we used 1/2 inch lags bolts that were 6 inch long in most places and 8 inched in length in a few key places. Two lag bolts positions about 2 inched from the top and the bottom of the ledger where placed approximately every 2 feet.

The following tricks made that process easier:

• Drill a pilot hole for each lag bolt- this make the driving these in much easier if you are doing them by hand
• Be sure to use the biggest socket ratchet you have - the more leverage you have the easier it will be
• Better still if you have a air compressor use an impact wrench - you know the thing that mechanics use to put the nuts on your car wheels.
• Measure out where the joists will go, and adjust where the lag bolts should go as to not interfere with the joist hangers.

This was a time consuming job, because although I do have a compressor, I had forgotten to borrow my son's (he is the family mechanic) impact wrench. With 70 lag bolts to put in it took two of us, my wife and I about 6 hours to twist them all in...

Once they lag screws are in we started the framing of the deck superstructure, which consists of 6" x 6" posts and 2" x 10" lumber for joists and beams.

As the example in the picture illustrates:

• 4" x 10" beams were built between each of the posts (3) and between the two posts at each end and the ledger board. These beams were built up from two pieces of 2" x 10" lumber.
  
• a single 2 x 10 was used between the ledger and the middle posts.

Double and single joist hangers made the job of securing the beams and joists very easy. In fact we built the beams, nailed ( and cinched the nails) and installed the joist hangers prior installing them between the posts.

You can just barely see the metal parts used. The joist hangers between the beams and posts, and the post saddles used to secure the posts to the concrete piers on which they sit. A post saddle is a formed metal plate, which is embedded into concrete, used to hold the bottom of a post secure.

The whole process requires a level to make sure:

• the posts are perfectly vertical
• the beams and joists are perfectly horizontal AND the tops of them are at the same height as the top of the ledger board.

Throw in a square just to make sure the joists and beams a perfectly square (that is 90 degrees) to the ledger board, and voila we have the deck framed and ready for the deck boards.

COMING UP: Lots more on the deck after this weekend!

The Roof is Framed!!!

Two of my sons and I worked until midnight last night (Sunday) - driving to complete the installation of the trusses for the attached gazebo.

The reason is simple! I have hired a roofer to complete the roof - to put on the fascia, sheathing, and shingles. - and he starts this morning. The majority of the roof trusses were installed last weekend but the gazebo roof could not be completed until the superstructure for the deck was built. The reason is that the posts holding up the deck also serve as the support for the gazebo roof.

We spent Saturday installed the posts, and Sunday until mid-day we competed the deck substructure - mostly the joists. In the interests of time we just threw up some plywood so that we could used the deck as a platform to work from - to install the beams across the top of the posts which would eventually support the gazebo roof.

Even with the plywood deck the task was daunting - especially for me with my fear of heights - as the top of the posts are a full 2 stories and on the lakeside even higher. But with the help of my sons Adric and Nathan we put up ladders and got to work. Nathan was a real godsend - he doesn't share my fear of heights and was able to do those things that I couldn't do. How he can calmly site on a beam two stories up and nail away I just can't fathom - but I am very grateful.

Adric was extremely helpful. He is a big strapping and strong lad. His help in lifting big heavy 20 foot posts, roof trusses made a big difference.

At 9:30 PM, the sunlight rapidly disappearing, and 5 more trusses to put up it was clear that we we going to working into the night. Fortunately, I have a generator and a set of halogen lights. With them on it was almost like daylight. Then we heard the telltale sounds of the generator fighting for fuel - we were running out of gas! This could mean certain disaster! Without light we won't be able to finish and my roofing contractor would be arriving today to an incomplete roof.

Nathan quickly jumped in the Jimmy with an empty gasoline tank and sped of to the only gas station in Otter Lake. Fortunately there were open and catastrophe was averted.

At 12:00 PM midnight exactly I finished hammering in the last nail. After a 30 minute take down and cleanup process the tools were all in the shed, and we were on the road back home.

Sorry to disappoint! For those of you hoping for pictures you will have to wait until next weekend. In the interested of time I simply didn't take any pictures this weekend - and besides it was pitch black at 12 midnight!

Shooting Nails into Concrete

How do you secure wood to concrete?

When I installed the sheathing on the walls I placed them so that about a foot of the concrete foundation was also covered. Now ordinary nails just don't do concrete so I needed another solution to secure the sheathing material to the concrete.

I used a tool called the the 'Power Hammer' made by Remington - Yes the rifle people, to literally shoot nails through the sheathing and into the concrete. This power hammer drives special concrete nails ranging from 1 to 2.5 inched in length using a .22 caliber, necked down, crimped, low velocity power loads.

The nail is placed at the end of the barrel and the power load is loaded in the other end. The Power Hammer is held on the spot the nail is to go and a hammer is used bang the other end, thus triggering the power load to fire.

It is very important to use the right length of nail and power load combination. The power loads come in 4 strengths. I used 1.5 or 2 inch nails with the highest power load, a number 4 which were colour-coded yellow.

It took a bit of trial and error to get the right combination. In the above picture you can see two power nails. The left one didn't quite go all the way into the concrete - I believe the power load was not high enough. The one on the right is perfect - I you can see where the nail is is the plastic sleeve that holds the nail in the barrel.

Ladders in the Roof!

Yes... 'IN' the Roof...

Ever wonder how they build those overhanging parts of roofs. Well they do it with something called a roof 'ladder'.

The ladder for the front gable is illustrated in the picture. How this works is that the gable truss - that is the one at the very end - is actually shorter than its sister trusses. The ladder sits on top of this gable truss and hangs over - or cantilevered in building lingo. The opposite side of the ladder is nailed to the second truss, and voila! you have the roof overhang.

There are two gabled ends on the cottage. The second one is around the side.

BTW - My trusses were manufactured by Kent Trusses based out of Sundridge Ontario.

Raising the Roof!

Well after trials by rain and sheer sweat and muscle power, the framing of the main part of the roof is complete.

This picture shows the front of the cottage, and hence you can see the central hip roof with the two gabled dormers - one on the front and one on the side. Actually the one on the right is still incomplete in this picture - there are two small trusses that need to go in behind the gable end to complete the dormer.

The worse part of the whole job was getting the trusses first up on the roof. This was accomplished with the sweat and muscle mentioned above. Fortunately I have three adult, and string sons.

The process for getting the trusses up on the roof, at least for the big ones went something like the following:

1. Three of use would pick the truss up and bring it up as close to the cottage as possible. The fourth held a 12 foot 2x4 with a v-notch cut in one end.
2. First we would orient the truss so that it was in the position when we eventually got it up on the roof. We wished to have the foot(bottom) of the truss facing the lakeside, and the head (top) facing towards the front of the cottage. The position on the ground was such that the it was length ways parallel to the front wall of the cottage.
   
3. Two of the truss movers, those closest to the cottage, would lift the truss up as high as they could.
4. The v-notch 2x4 would then be used to help them push the end of the truss over the top of the front wall.
5. One of the two truss holder then quickly ran up inside the cottage and up a ladder to grab the truss.
6. The process then consisted of pur brute strength pushing and pulling the truss up and over the front wall until about half of the truss was on the roof.
   
7. The v-notch 2x4 person would use this 2x4 to push up and hold the end hanging overhead while another person joined the one already inside the cottage and pulled the rest of the truss onto the top of the walls.
8. As they were pulling it in they also spun it around so that the truss was now parallel to the front wall with the foot of the truss facing the lakeside.
   

The trusses are not that heavy. Two people can actually lift the heaviest at 205 lbs, however, they are awkwardly shaped, and quite fragile while horizontal. It fact we damaged one of the trusses getting it up ion the roof - one of the joints bent. Fortunately, we were able to hammer it back into position.

It brute force mode, we placed all of the big trusses up on the roof in the order that we would need to install them.

Oh! Where is that crane when you need it...

BTW - My trusses were manufactured by Kent Trusses based out of Sundridge Ontario.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain...

Rain means construction halts!

Rain means you can't use power tools - unless you have a death by electrocution wish.

After 2 days of rain, and not getting much accomplished, we erected a makeshift roof with a huge tarp and a few poles to suspend it above the walls.

It worked well enough that I could continue to work inside - under the big top - to do the framing of all the interior walls.

Understanding one's Limits...

Generally the sheathing of the walls is applied at the same time as building each wall. However we took a different approach.

We framed each wall and stood them up without attaching the sheathing. The main reason was weight. With only two person crews most of the weekends, and often just myself and my wife, the added weight of the sheathing would make the walls just too heavy to lift into place safely.

So the two pictures show the before and after the sheathing.

There was another considerations. I wished to cover the whole exterior in a seamless sheathing - from below the floor joists right up to the top plate of the walls. This makes for a very strong bond between the main floor walls and the rest of the building.

It is a little bit more difficult to apply the sheathing but the end result is worth it.

Anchor Bolts... holding the Cottage down

Ever wonder how you attach the wood part of the cottage (or house) to the concrete foundation?

It is done using a special kind of bolt called an anchor bolt. These bolts are a 'J' shaped bolt which are inserted in the concrete just after it is poured. Enough of the threaded end of the bolt sticks out of the concrete so that it can go thorough and secure the sole plate of the framed walls using a washer and a nut.

The same kind of bolt is used to secure the post to a concrete pier, however, the posts are attached with a metal bracket called a saddle.

I'll provide illustrations of the bolts in both of these final configurations in a follow-up post.

Sawing Central

Over the past three weekend I have developed quite a system to measuring and cutting the lumber. I use three combination tables and saw horses as illustrated in the picture.

I use two to hold and measure the lumber, then swing the piece across to the third table where I have a chop saw. From there I take the piece about 4 paces and place it up on the floor ready for assembly.

Three Sides... One to go...

As of Sunday, June 22 at about 5 pm we have been able to complete the framing on three sides of the cottage. We had been hoping for more but it rained until about 7:30 am and then we spent - as revealed in a previous post an hour draining the basement of water from the massive rain storm the previous evening. So we started late.

On top of that we ended early - about 5 pm. And lucky we did as about 5:20 pm the skies opened up with rain once again. We we just able to get the tools away and the tarp back on the floor.

Next weekend the target is to finish the framing on the remaining walls put the sheathing up on all the exterior walls.

We are hoping to get the framing of the superstructure for the deck as well as it contains some key posts which support portions of the roofing trusses.

Ringing Around the House with Walls

Over the weekend we were able to frame all but one side of the cottage. The following pictures illustrate various views of our progress as you move right to left or counterclockwise around the floor.

Our progress is illustrated in the following pictures, starting with the east wall in the left picture. The east wall has the bathroom window. The wall next to the lakeside wall will have the wood stove.


The lakeside wall with the large picture window. I posted a picture of the view it will provide in the previous post.





This is the garden door which open up onto a big screened 12 x 12 octagonal deck with a gazebo like roof. The garden door will be 6 feet in width, and open fully to expand the living space dramatically. I can't wait to be enjoying a cold one sitting in there!








The rough opening for the kitchen window in the west wall. With large casement windows this will catch the westerly breezes and flow them through the cottage. Moving around the corner you can see the opening for the front door in the partially framed southern wall.