Preparing for the Roof

The final preparations are being made for the big day when the roof trusses will be set on the house.  Hours of planning are my only insurance that things will go smoothly.  A crane and operator are lined up for early Saturday morning.  Five friends have scheduled their valuable weekend time to help with the work.  The top plates are measured and marked for the location of each truss - all the components are labeled and a plan with task sequencing is printed for everyone to carry (and to look at?)

The ends of the trusses are painted with green and white paint to indicate the ends that go to the west and to the east (respectively).  They stay banded together until the big day so that they will not warp or bow.

I cut the plates out for each interior door so people will not be tripping as they work on the trusses.

A microlam beam will hang from one of the roof trusses that is designed to carry a 17,000 lb point load.  The truss, called a girder truss, is actually 3 specially engineered trusses that will be nailed together during the installation.  The microlam beam is prepared in advance with truss hangers preinstalled.  It will be used to support much of the roof load from the turret and pass the roof load around the turret for the front gable.

Another larger microlam beam carries the load around the east gable.  It is set in place, with truss hangers installed.

Temporary braces are nailed in place on the building ends to help keep the gable end trusses plumb and from falling off the building during installation.

Everything is ready for Saturday morning.