building our retirement cabin

   / building our retirement cabin #41  
I'm enjoying watching your build project.
I'm curious about the rafters you're building. Could you post pictures and explain them? Thanks.
 
   / building our retirement cabin #42  
How will you get that ridge pole up in place? This looks like a great family project, way to break in the son inlaw's!

Dave
 
   / building our retirement cabin
  • Thread Starter
#43  
Jerry, The rafters we built were sort of a box truss, we used 2x4 for the upper and lower edge of the rafter and boxed them with strandboard. where there were joints on the plywood we had 2x4 uprights nailed to joint them and the sheets were staggered. No pictures building them unfortunately 90 degrees the day we built them nobody was taking pictures.
 
   / building our retirement cabin
  • Thread Starter
#44  
Once we had the ridge pole peeled and cut to length, the original tree was 82' long, we had to cut 4 ft off of the butt and it had a slight deform to it, The dia was 24" at the butt and at 42' measured about 16" which is what we needed. I have no idea what this log weighed but it was all my case had to lift the entire log on to the walls of the cabin,my wife ran for cover but got it up on there no trouble. We then used 2x8 to lift the ridge board which was a 2x12" in place to nail the rafters to. Once we had that up and level we started to lift the rafters using the jib I built to hold them until they were nailed in place. When we had several of them in place we nailed strapping on to keep them from moving. cabin roof 060.jpgcabin roof 063.jpgroof ridge.pngstanding ridge board.pngridgeboard standing.png
 
   / building our retirement cabin
  • Thread Starter
#45  
Two days of work to get the roof strapped and ready for the metal, as you can see in the last set of pictures our power arrived and was being trenched in. we now have AC in the camper. Once the strapping was done with 2x4's we called in the family to help put the roof on. My son Philip is the brave one on top much to his mothers dismay. Got her done anyway. When the rafters were all up we tied them together with 2x4 under the ridge board. this was also a support for the ridge pole.cabin roof 071.jpgcabin roof 072.jpgcabin roof 074.jpgcabin roof 079.jpgcabin roof 076.jpgcabin roof 084.jpgcabin roof 086.jpgcabin roof 090.jpgcabin roof 083.jpg
 
   / building our retirement cabin #46  
I don't understand your need for a ridge pole. You have a ridge board in place with your rafters.

Also, I see what you did in making the rafters that I asked about earlier. I've never seen that before. Is that common in your area? Where did you discover this method? Looks to be very strong.
 
   / building our retirement cabin
  • Thread Starter
#47  
The reason for the ridge pole was because with the ridge board and the common rafter there is a great deal of side loading on the wall forcing them apart. If we had lowered the 2x4's it would be stronger but we would lose a lot of head space in the loft. Also the ridge pole was also for effect as I thought it would give the cabin a more rustic appearance and a good conversaion piece. The rafter idea came from a construction book I bought many years ago ,this rafter is very strong and has good load bearing qualities however with out support in the center there is nothing to stop it from pushing out the walls.Getting the pole up was very tricky to say the least. We had plans of hiring a crane but there were no local ones available so back to my trusty 730 and we gave it a go. We milled 12"x12" uprights,three of them. They sat on loading bearing walls tranfering the load to the piling.
 
   / building our retirement cabin
  • Thread Starter
#48  
When we had the uprights milled we used the jib to raise one end to the pole and braced it . Then we went to the other end and lifted it to the top and chained it to the ridge board. Then back to the large end and finished lifting it into place. Once it was there we used a floor jack and a 8x8 to raise it tight. Of couse we had already cut flat spots in the pole for it to rest on the uprights.becs wedding 140.jpgbecs wedding 142.jpgbecs wedding 143.jpgbecs wedding 145.jpg20110920-215311.JPGcabin window 001.jpgcabin window 002.jpg
 
   / building our retirement cabin #49  
"The ridge pole was also for effect as I thought it would give the cabin a more rustic appearance and a good conversation piece."

I agree, that's a really nice touch and a good job getting it up there:thumbsup: It's amazing how much weight we can move around if we "think" about it long enough.
 
   / building our retirement cabin #50  
Ok, thanks for the explanations.

That ridge pole looks great. Terrific job getting it in place and on the whole project.

Thanks for posting. :)
 
 
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