After all the digging and other prep for the garage slab, I was feeling kind of lazy and I wasn't moving too quickly to finish the garage. But Frank and Tricia prodded me indirectly by ordering the trusses for me and Frank prepared the lumber list. So I got quotes and ordered the lumber and everything was delivered late last week. That meant it was time to actually build the thing. We set July 1-2 as the dates for framing, hoping we could do the whole shebang in one weekend.
One of the construction lessons I learned: don't let concrete cure on the anchor bolts that are in the foundation. I thought I would just be able to wire brush the concrete slag off the threads, since the bolts were greased when installed. But when I went to do that Friday night it wasn't so easy; I spent about two hours just cleaning bolts. I guess I should have done that immediately after the concrete was poured.
Tricia, Frank, Adam (Frank's son) and Paulo arrived at 7am sharp Saturday morning and we got started. Frank is a very experienced builder and framer so he was in charge. My dad helped out a bunch, and my mom took Audrey for 24 hours so we didn't have to worry about keeping her out of danger. Jason, the architect, came by for a few hours with his son Alexander. Jason noticed a couple of things that could have been problems for the inspection, but we were able to resolve them. Carol kept us all fed and supplied with drinks. Charlotte supplied all the cuteness we needed.
By 6pm Saturday we had all of the exterior walls up, although some were still missing their sheathing. The sheathing provides the shear strength for the walls, so it's pretty important in keeping the building from falling down. There was a blazing sun all day and by the end we were all pretty baked. Tricia brought spray-on sunscreen and kept us all protected all day.
The crew decided that on Sunday they would not set an alarm and they would come whenever they woke up (they live an hour away in Puyallup). They arrived at 9am and we started cranking again. We still had to sheath those exterior walls and build the lone interior wall, which had to be built such that it could be installed over the plumbing service that sticks up out of the slab. Then we were finally ready to start raising the roof.
Normally you have the trusses delivered after the walls are framed, and the truss company uses a crane to deliver the trusses on top of the walls in bundles. Then you just flip them and place them. We couldn't do it that way because there are utility wires in the alley that are too low. So we had to lift all of the trusses up by hand.
We started with the smaller trusses over the future art studio. Those trusses are relatively light and they went up pretty easily. Plus they were good practice. Also, the westernmost truss of the studio provides the beam on which the main garage trusses hang.
Then it was time to move on to the larger main trusses. It's pretty precarious raising the first one - the gable truss on the end. It has OSB (plywood) nailed to it already when it is raised, so it's heavy. And you have to lift it to vertical but not let it fall over and off the side of the building. We managed to do it successfully. The rest of the trusses take some time, but the process is pretty straightforward. We finally got the last truss up and braced at about 6pm. Everybody was tired and sun-baked again, so we called it a day.
We probably still have about a day's worth of work to do before the framing work is complete. We need to build the edge features for the roof (barge boards and overhangs and other trim), then we can install all of the roof sheathing. At that point, I can call for the framing inspection. Once we pass that, I can start installing roofing and siding and get the building dried in.
Overall, I'm pretty impressed with what we able to accomplish in two days!
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