The first few photos are of the first truss being placed yesterday afternoon… After that, you can see the great progress that has been made since. It is a fairly complicated roof design, with a steep (8:12) pitch to the main part of the roof, and 10:12 over the garage, so we are very glad to have G.N. Construction, owned by Gaby and Freddy Nasarallah, doing the work for us.
Lifting the first trussPlacing the 1st Truss1st Truss in PlaceNailing Truss to Top PlateSteadying the 1st TrussTruss Progress - Front ViewNice and Straight Wall...North Side of House View - Before Stick-built tie-inBack side viewBack Porch OverhangFreddy & Gaby Nasarallah, Construction
To contact Freddy about all types of construction projects in the Roswell, Ruidoso, Artesia, Carlsbad area, call them at: (575) 914-0018 or (575) 420-3194.
At a little after 3 pm the work is finally begun on setting trusses. I was amazed to see one of the framers walking around the top of the framing like a balance beam… quite a good balancing act. He was walking along the top plates marking truss locations. The wind has kicked up a bit and it would make me more than a little nervous. Marking truss locations
The last job we had planned in preparation for the framing crew was to get all the porch support beams notched and ready for installation. The framing contractor has a lift that will allow putting them in place easily, so having them fitted and ready for installation was the plan.
After laying them out in place, they were cut to size. At each joint, a pillar with corbels will be placed below. Using a circular saw to start the cuts, and a hand saw to finish them (due to the massive size of the beams, the blade couldn’t reach the complete depth), the job was done.Closeup of joint between two beam sections
Beams laid on on the length of the back porchCorner jointImagine these beams in place about 10 feet up...
While I was busy in town (haircuts, canning and lawn-mowing), Oz was able to get the interior beams and posts into place. He used a standard drill, the impact drill, hand saw, circular saw, scaffolding and our fondly named “T-Rex” modified engine lift. Again, it proved helpful in getting the beam lifted into place without back strain or injury. In preparation for the project, the beam was cut to size and then notched so that it fit into the interior framing. After the notch was prepared on each end, the beam was attached to the corbels using 10″ wood screws. Support framing was built to fit into the interior framing to support the beam.
Tools Used for the job…Notched Beam and Corbel
T-Rex was then used to lift one side of the beam to the height of the scaffolding.
T-Rex lifting the beam
After the first side was set onto the scaffolding,
One end propped on scaffolding
the other side was lifted into place into the wall. Support framing was put into place beneath it. The process was duplicated at the other end, again using T-Rex.
Lifting top into place1st end in placeFinal lifting on other end…Vertical Box beam support in place
Once both ends of the beam were secure, the posts and their corbels were attached to the beam. Still to be done: drilling anchors for the posts into the concrete and covering the bolts with wooden dowels and sanding to match the surface.
Right on schedule, we finished up the last bit of sheathing that we can do before the roof trusses are set in place. With just a bit more internal bracing, we’ll be ready for the hired crew to put the trusses in place starting on Wednesday. We had hoped to have the trusses ready by Monday, but the truss company has been running behind due to high demand lately. The earliest they can have our trusses ready will be Tuesday afternoon.
Using cargo straps and the bumper of the dually, Oz was able to get all the walls pulled into plumb before placing sheathing on the framework. We are very happy with the nice, straight walls on the house. It is really taking shape. Here are a few photos of the progress:
Front viewView from the north, looking at the back porch area...Back porchView looking out family room windows to the west.
We have planned to have large exposed beams supporting the back porch area, near the front entry and inside the house foyer. With the intense sun in SE New Mexico, it is important to protect the wood. Thus… choosing a stain color for the wood.
Luckily, we were able to get stain samples from Scott McCain of Mountain Home Building Products. After a phone conversation with him, he sent us several samples of their products that will offer good UV protection to the wood. After receiving them, mixing well (apparently the pigment tends to settle in the bottoms of the jars) and brushing on some of the type of wood we have for the beams, pillars and corbels, you can see the results after the samples dried:
UV Guard Clear, UV Guard II SantaFe Sun, UV Guard II ClearUV Guard Light Brown, AmberUVGuardII Teakwood, UV Guard HoneyBrown, UVGuard FawnUVGuard Ii Rustic Timber, UVGuard II Cedartone
Although the stain from the Honey Brown ran into the Fawn a little bit, we were still able to see the clear distinction between the colors. We are leaning toward the Fawn color… Really, though, they are all really attractive colors, so we’d probably be happy with any of them.
Scott encouraged us to choose a stain with some pigment to better protect the wood. Since the beams will be largely under the porch and will have some protection, we could use the clear or the very light Santa Fe Sun, but we are thinking more color would be better in the long run.
What do you think?
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to say we are a bit partial towards working with Scott and Mountain Home Building Products, since he is family, but I would encourage anyone to give their products a try. Check out their site using the link in our blogroll.
Work has continued… the main work happening now is the house sheathing. After drilling bolts to secure various walls in the house to the foundation, leveling the walls and sheathing started. As you can see from the photos, from the first sheet of OSB on the corner of the garage, the sheathing has progressed around the back side of the house to the laundry room and onto the wall of the music room on the front side.
Attaching the first sheet of OSB sheathingGarage sheathedSheathing on Music Room
On the garage, the second floor framing will be done when the rafters are stick-built for the roof above the bonus room. In order to allow a sturdy tie-in, the top bit of sheathing on the end wall was left to complete after the framing is complete.
As the walls are leveled, interior bracing is added to keep the framing from shifting when the upstairs framing above the garage and roof trusses are added to the rest of the house.
The upstairs framing and placing trusses is scheduled to start next Monday. That portion is being subcontracted, so it should happen much faster than our two-person pace typically produces.
Yesterday we finished up the flooring for the bonus room above the garage. Starting at the stairs, we gradually got the entire surface above the floor joists covered with tongue-in-groove flooring OSB. After cutting to size, we hauled the pieces up the stairs, glued along each joist, maneuvered the wood into place and then screwed into the joists securely.
We have shade!!!Looking up the stairsPreparing to place a floor sectionDropping it into place after gluingSecuring with screwsTop ViewThat was a lot of flooring!Another top view
We have spent a good deal of time this week and last week working on the stairs that will lead to the bonus room over the garage (note: future WWII Militaria museum and research center). Today we finally finished up the basic framework and then added the wall framing for the laundry room and pantry. We did have to make a few changes on the fly as we got into the actual work of calculating the step height and depth, and ended up adding one more step to the staircase than our original plan called out. This caused us to have a few less inches of space in the entry to the laundry room and also caused us to have a slightly larger space in the pantry. We also had to modify the entrance to the laundry room to a pocket door framing to allow adequate space. The photos show some of the progress, including the finished framing of kitchen and dining room:
Staircase as seen from the pantryView of the very spacious pantryLaundry room entry -- pocket doorKitchen framingDining Room
As we enter into the second week of interior framing, more progress is being made. Yesterday we got a good start on the walls for the kitchen and music room (after we swamped out the slab from the heavy rain). Today we set the floor joists for the garage bonus room. We still have a bit more work to do on that part, but it definitely is taking shape. Here are a few photos:
