One story rafter raising

At the beginning of last week, we spent a couple of days raising the rafter goal posts for the one story section of the house.

We’d already built the components (posts and rafters) over the previous week or two. Raising the one story rafters is a bit like raising the goal posts for the two story section: nail the rafters to the posts flat on the deck, then raise the assembled units and drop them into the post holes along the edge of the deck. We had two or three helpers each day. It’s best to have two people on each side as you walk the rather top-heavy assembly along the deck to the post holes. We raised the first three with only three people, though, by using a rope tied to the collar tie and a person on the second floor pulling on the rope.

The plumbing and squaring process went more smoothly this time because we knew better what we were doing. With the two story goal post raising, we decided to not fully nail the beams to the posts to make them easier (supposedly) to plumb and square after raising. But this turned out to be a mistake, because it made squaring the goal posts much more difficult – a two day process, as it turned out, because of the need to detach and reattach numerous braces to get things square.

With the one story section, we squared up the goal posts as accurately as possible with the assemblies lying on the deck, and fully nailed the joints. Then after raising, the goal posts were plumb in the short (15 foot) direction without any extra fiddling. This left only the need to brace the goal posts to be plumb in the long (30 foot) direction, which was easily accomplished with diagonal braces on the posts, then horizontal braces along the tops of the collar ties to get the spacing between rafters correct.

Getting the final bit of the house frame up gave us a huge sense of accomplishment, and we took it easy for a day or two afterwards. Then we started the big push to get the whole house sheathed so we can get the roof on as soon as possible.