September 26 - More Firewall Details and a Change of Seasons

Firewall Framing Nears Completion -
The big, complicated firewall is nearly all framed up. And it looks rather pretty with its red-edge-trimmed boards. The manufactured boards have a distinct advantage over natural, tree grown, boards in that they do not warp. They will stay straight. The boards are also significantly harder than natural boards. The nail guns do not sink the nails completely so they must be driven home with powerful hammer blows. Sam noted that some nails were bent in the process. One man once told me that 'threaded nails' hold better, so maybe those bent ones that get rapped in are an improvement on straight ones.

Openings for the windows and doors are framed up.The opening in the center is for doors. The larger openings on each side of center are where the windows will go. The windows will not be that big but will be framed up within that opening. If the headers over those openings were placed at finished height, an additional horizontal beam would be required, so those headers being up in the sky satisfy the structural requirements.

The headers are rather beefy looking. Three and one-half inches of laminated wood standing on edge. A double thickness of the material pictured below.



Building materials and techniques are all about carrying weight. Sam talks about carrying the weight of the roof, complete with an eight foot or so snow load, if my memory serves me correctly. He might think I am stretching the snow load, but this isn't Florida, you know.
Concrete footings under the walls. Concrete filled foam blocks make up the walls which support the trusses.Big girder trusses carry the weight of the center of the building. And now the firewall has to be strong enough to hold up its share of the weight. So we use all these glued up, resin filled manufactured wood products. Products that were not available to people who used solid walnut beams to build their barns with. Check out all the air space in the top picture of this post and the one below. I figure we are holding up the roof with 12% solids and 88% air.

Trusses, bring on more trusses -
The piggybacks over the front entry are now installed. So, now we have a  peaky rather than flat top foyer. First they were hoisted up with the mobile fork lift. The trussmen peeled them off one at a time, installing them from the building outward towards the road.










Lyle, Sam and Troy are securing the first truss. Naturally, they again appeased the rats by first installing rat runs so the piggies can rest on them. Paul, on the far right, is actually working on the firewall from the topside. 2x8 boards are attached in the notches that were sculpted into the top of the firewall studs. The picture below shows this operation more clearly.

As evening descends, the last truss is peeled off the fork tines and dropped into its final resting place. It took a little clever maneuvering to get the truss off the tines without undue acrobatics by the roof bound workers. "They done good."










The Wood Pile - 
There is a pile of wood scraps to which some smaller folks were diligently adding throughout the evening. Wood pieces too small to use any more are designated for this pile.
I wonder what will be the fate of this material. The wood chunks that were used to hold the bolts in the walls were polluted with concrete when the walls were poured and the wood pieces were to be discarded. Brent was charged with loading the basket on the mobile forklift to dump them into the dumpster. He stopped for what seemed like several minutes and stared at the wood chunks. I thought I even saw a tear form in the corner of his eye. I saw concrete splattered wood pieces. He saw BTUs. BTUs that would be unavailable for heating his boiler at home. He did dump the load in the dumpster and not in his car, but it was a difficult decision. I am thinking he might be better prepared when the time comes to dispose of this wood pile.
Changing Seasons -
With the change of seasons upon us, the birds are flocking up, making practice runs for the flight south. The sandhill cranes, which Sam once referred to as "rib eye of the sky",  will soon be gone for the winter, I did not succeed in getting the picture of these magnificent birds in flight that I had hoped for, but maybe they have not yet gone (I hope, I hope, I hope). But if not this year, there is always next year, and I will try again.

 Also with the change of seasons come a new paint job for the blog. Out with the orange and in with the autumn buff color.

September 23 - Still More Firewall Work and a Cool Tool

A Very Wet Summer -
I do not want to confuse people with the facts  so I am not going to research history to compare this summer with its predecessors, but I do know that there has been a lot of rain. I suspect when the roof is finally on and the building is water tight, a drought will immediately begin. Aare uses a piece of construction lumber as a floating bridge to cross the moat protecting the middle of the building.





Along the back wall a small pond has formed. I am thinking that it is lucky it is not spring time or we would likely be chasing geese off of nests before we could start work for the day. Of course a swan or two would rather dress up the place.

Now that we see how complicated the firewall is, I am thinking maybe a cistern or two along the back wall might furnish adequate water for a sprinkler system and save all the bother of the firewall. Well, I suppose greater minds than mine have thought this matter through already. Besides, it is probably not a smart thing to cross horses in midstream, as my metaphor mixer used to say.
Finishing the Firewall Top Plate -

Ed, Ami, and Loren collaborated on finishing off the firewall top plate. Once again two segments must be joined in space without the benefit of a wall or ceiling to stabilize it. A couple more temporary supports were dropped across the firewall span and the endpoints of the wall segment were plotted. Then with the benefit of the cool little laser tool, the last segment was put into place. Here Ami joins the plate segments together.

Ed is caught red handed holding the board while Ami puts in a screw. The red laser line is delineating where the edge of the board needs to go.

The red line on the board is the edge line for the board coming in from the right. The plate consists of a double layer of these boards so another board will be placed under the joint securing both of these boards and strengthening the joint.

The ingenious tool that throws out these red lines is shown here. The laser is aligned along the edge of the angled wall. You can see the red beam just catching  the edge of the wall. It casts out a line from the left side of the box (the beam along the wall edge) and out the top, projecting a line on the overhead boards as shown above.

Where the angled wall meets the existing foam block wall, a vertical line shows on the foam block. The finished firewall will intersect the foam block wall along this line. So, building a wall at an oddball angle is a matter of getting all the edges to line up on the red lines. This incredible little device saves hours of layout work with chalk lines snapped between points that may not be very easy to locate in space. 

The white stuff on the beams at the top of the wall is Dave's intumescent  paint. I have been waiting anxiously to get that word back into the blog. For those seeking to impress acquaintances, intumescence is a noun meaning a swollen part of a plant or animal. So I think you could probably drop in a casual line like, "Oh look. The nasty bee that stung me left a painful intumescence." I am certain that will generate much more sympathy than an ordinary swelling.

  

Here Dave, who does carpentry when not painting, is marking a spot on the  plate with his red pencil. The red spot, which is marking where the stud must be located, is generated by the laser. Or maybe it is just the mark left by the red pencil he is using. 

September 19 - The Firewall Construction Continues

Correction - 
As difficult as it might be to believe, a previous post contained a factual error. The red sided boards being used in the firewall construction are not fire resistant. There is fire resistant plywood on site, that is red, and will be used as sheeting over the top of the firewall and eight feet to either side of it. The chronicler confused a comment about the red plywood with the red banded manufactured wood boards regarding being fire resistant.
So, it turns out the firewall is stuffed with combustible material. The fire resistance relies on the plywood decking on the top, the concrete floor and blocks below, the double layers of Sheetrock on both sides, and, not to put too much pressure on Dave, a layer of intumescent paint.
The doors and windows must be installed and they also will hold a fire at bay, but at the moment I am not sure how that works. Like a former workmate and metaphor mixer used to say, we will burn that bridge when we come to it.

Building the Wall - 
Constructing a custom wall is a painstaking process. Each stud must be carefully measured for its location with no two studs the same length. Since the top plate is sloping up into the sky, the top of each stud must be cut on an angle. With the studs being so long, it takes three people, a lift and a laser level in addition to the tape measure to figure the correct length.
Here we see Bob at the bottom, and ...
















Loren in the lift, getting the measurement for the first one.





















Ami uses a circular saw to sculpt the top end of the stud. Like works of art, each stud is unique, sculpted to the proper measurement and top angle to fit its spot.



On the left is a completed stud top sculpture.

The first stud, fastened with screws at the top and bottom, the stud is securely settled in its new home. We will pass on a house warming party since we dare not get the stud too warm.

Each stud in succession then must have its spot measured for length. Ami holds the tape at the bottom while Loren and Bob maneuver above, locating the correct spot for the stud using the laser. We see the laser on the bottom plate in front of the tape and, in the picture below, the spot on the upper plate where the stud must be placed. The whole process looks a bit tedious but its gotta be done.

I asked Bob a question about some detail on the firewall and he responded with this picture. I include it without further explanation since it came with none. Now you, too, can frame a firewall.











More and Brighter Lights -

Phil brought the other lift inside, making the building resemble an industrial parking ramp.

He used both of them to string up more lights inside.

The new lights were powered from the same generator that powered Bob's saw. The poor little generator was not up to handling all the demand. The saw motor starting caused the lights to dim unevenly. It also caused Loren to fade out of the picture.

The new lighting did make for a pretty picture as the darkness descended on the building site.

One More Interesting Sight - 

There is a room being built above the restrooms that will house some furnaces. Dave and Ed (legs shown dangling from above) are adding some needed framing members. Dave is using a lever, and a good deal of muscle,  to force the long 2x4 upwards to raise the horizontal member that Ed will then secure with nails when properly placed. Hercules meets Archimedes. 

September 17 - Building the Big, Complicated Firewall

No Ordinary Wall -
The firewall, which is the back wall of the sanctuary, is covered on both sides by a double layer of Sheetrock. (Sheetrock is a trademarked name. Did you know that?) The Sheetrock must extend from the floor to the roof sheeting without any break for nuisance things like trusses or roof rafters. The design of the firewall is such that it is not a straight, flat wall. It has angled bends in it, designed to improve acoustics in the sanctuary. It has cement blocks laid immediately on the footing. No foam blocks allowed in a firewall. The cement blocks, which are filled with cement,  will extend about three inches above the concrete floor. A wooden base plate goes on top of the blocks, and the wooden studs then go up to the top plate, which is a fire resistant wood type material. It is noticeable on site because of the red paint on the edges of the boards.
Putting the plate on the cement blocks is relatively easy. Measure the segment, cut the 2x6 board and secure it to the block base with the bolts in the cement filling. The only trick is cutting the miter joint at the proper angle, Putting the top plate in its proper place is another matter altogether. Consider - the wall is not straight, and the roof is not flat, but pitched upward. Further, the roof rafters above cannot be put in yet since they will be attached to hangers affixed to the Sheetrock wall that is not yet built. Got it?
Putting Up the Top Plate -
Temporary place holder supports are attached to span the open, truss-less area. These supports are manufactured from a 2x6 and a 2x4 attached at right angles.  Charles is carrying one from the assembly area to the lift, from which it will be hoisted into place.

Bob and Brian move the supports into place and attach them with screws into the existing trusses. Once eight or so are properly positioned, the bottoms of the supports are marked with a chalk line. The spanning supports must be placed over the places where the wall bends since that is where the top plate pieces must be joined (just like on the base plate).
A laser beam is used to locate the corner of the joint on the temporary spanning support.

Brian is holding the chalk line on the support. If you look carefully, you can see the red dot of the laser beam. Bob is holding the other end of the chalk line somewhere in the upper chambers of the trusses. When the line is snapped, all the temporary supports will have a line with which the top plate segment must be aligned.

The first long segment enters the building. Brian is using a strap with a loop to raise the right end of the board while the lift is used to hoist the other end of the board.









Brian anchors his end of the board on the far right as I view the scene. The screws holding the plate must be put in from the top since the supports are temporary and will be removed after the wall is built. After the wall is built the remaining rafters can be put in place. The roof sheeting can then go on the rafters and the sheeting will be nailed to the plate from above.













Brian crawls out on the trusses to attach the plate to the next temporary support. He gets to hang his head over to find the chalk line to make sure the plate is properly positioned. Then from this position he drills in a screw from above to secure the plate to the support.

Meanwhile, in the upper reaches, Bob and Kevin work to put the plate into position. Bob has the good fortune to be part of the structural framework until the plate can be aligned with the chalk line and more screws attached. After this segment of the plate is supported by screws, Bob gets a chance to relax his grip, but not until all the screws are put in.
















 As Brian gets a screw in, Bob progresses to being a one-arm support piece. Well, I guess his right arm is still being used as a support but he likely needed to restore the blood flow to the arm.

When Kevin got the final screw in, Bob could take a vacation, albeit a very short vacation.

I suspect if Bob did this every day he would not need a gym membership.

The first segment of the top plate in place.

On the bottom plate, a miter joint is necessary at the segment junctions. On the top plate a miter joint is also necessary but with the additional complication of the roof sloping upward. So now a three dimensional miter joint is cut using a circular saw and a sawzall, without the benefit of a jig or a stationary miter saw. After the cuts were made, the segments were secured with screws.

While the acrobats were toiling at high altitudes, Steve was busy setting the bottom plate.

The top plate as it looked when I left the site. The remaining segments were being cut when I had to leave and I am confident after seeing the high level workmanship that the rest of the plate was successfully installed. All that remains now is the matter of building a wall to connect the top and bottom plates.
 

September 16, 17 - Installing the Look Outs

Look Out!
Ben is up on the lift chewing on our brand new gable end truss with a sawzall. Not only that, but he is gnawing on the very peak where the boards are joined by a metal fastener. Andy is on ground level removing some of the now-not-necessary gable end bracing. All right, Andy, what is Ben doing cutting into the truss? "Making it stronger," is his reply.
In my experience the only thing made stronger by cutting is the lawn, so I laugh, somewhat bewildered.

Andy continues his explanation. The gable end truss is notched to accept a 2x4 that will extend out to provide a nailing surface for the roof sheeting. These 2x4s, called lookouts, are nailed to the adjacent truss so the gable end truss is further strengthened when the new board also serves as a brace piece. Why the name?

 Since they protrude beyond the wall by a good distance, a guy on a lift has to be careful that he not entangle his vehicle or impale his humble body on one of these horizontal spikes. Hence, he must "look out" for them. Well, I did not make this up. Andy said it and he is a carpenter. Someone else on the site also used that label unprompted. So I guess it must be so.




Like so many other things in this construction business, look outs have very short lives. On Saturday morning an end cap had been nailed on and sheeting laid over the top. No more look outs. They were replaced by an ordinary eave.

 Let There Be Light - 

As the sun faded Friday evening and the darkness of evening set in, a new feature was added to the project. Artificial light.
Workers who might have felt compelled to head home when it became too dark to work, now have the opportunity to move inside and work longer. Tom and Troy are on the roof as the last rays of day catch only the clouds in the sky, and not the sheeting on the roof.











Everyone Contributes as He/She Is Able -


 All of the temporary bracing in the trusses has to come down. Young, agile, athletic folks like Charles, scramble among the trusses with grace and ease, removing the bracing that is no longer needed. The 2x4s can be reused but first the nails must be removed.












Here we see Brionna Wuollet removing nails by first pounding on the pointed end, then flipping the board over and pulling the nail out.



Brionna proved to be an excellent worker. She is safety aware and knows that with people working above (like Charles removing bracing), there is always a chance of some falling objects, so wearing a hard hat is a good practice. She demonstrated skill as a good worker and also as an effective teacher.

She was able to teach her grandfather, the erstwhile chronicler, the art of nail extraction. While Brionna was a good teacher, the pupil proved to be a rather poor student and did not stay on task for very long.