This week we made preparations for raising day. Top of the list of the preparations was assembling the bents (wall sections). To do this we laid out the posts, beams and braces on the floor and put all the joinery together. Then we checked that everything was square and that the posts parallel. Happy with that we secured the bents with wooden pegs.
Dad has been working on a gin pole/crane that he able to lift the first bent with. Mom finished staining the rafters and joists. I did not quality assurance and found a small issue with one of the rafters and we did lots of preparations for the logistics of raising day.
Positioning the pieces of the bent
Check out this week’s time lapse below. Note that I’ll make a separate blog post and video for raising day. It will be available in a couple of days.
Here are some still photos from this week with more details:
Moving a post into position on the floor
The ratchet strap will hold the joints tight until we drive in the wood pegs.
Using the persuader to knock everything into position
Checking that the bent is square.
Driving the pegs home.
Test fitting our braces
After test fitting the braces we discovered we needed to do a little extra cutting at the mortise housing.
Making some adjustments to the gin pole/crane
And the first bent is up
Doing a little quality assurance, I found that one of my rafters was not like the others.
Not as pretty but functional.
We’re inserting these wooden pegs at end of each loft joist to help strengthen the joint and prevent checking (cracking)
While teamwork is a good thing, tandem hammering perhaps not so.
Stay posted for raising day details. It should be available in a couple of days.
