Under Construction

The Second Floor & Roof

I rolled out the second floor joists and lay down the plywood subfloor, once again gluing and screwing, only I used 8d nails and my trusty pneumatic nailing gun. Then I began layout of the second floor walls and placement of the ridge beams. Since we wanted vaulted ceilings throughout the second floor, the roof required some special considerations when building. The ridge beams would fully support the rafters; the rafters themselves would transfer all the roof load directly to the outside walls, instead of relying on the typical triangle formed by the rafters, ceiling joists, and ridge posts.

This method required some walls built first, and the remaining walls framed-in after the roof went up. I build the load-bearing walls first, set the ridge posts, then set the ridge beams. Given the spans involved (36’ and 24’) I turned to another engineered wood product, the LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber). Each ridge beam consisted of two LVLs bolted together in sections, with each section weighing in at several hundred pounds each. Setting these ridge sections constituted the most stressful and dangerous part of the project.

In retrospect I probably shouldn't have undertaken this alone. But I figured I ought to at least give it a try and see what happened. Not the best approach, to say the least. Fortunately I set all the ridges without incident and at their proper heights too; once the final section sat in place I actually looked forward to dealing with the rafters.

Each rafter measured ten inches deep by almost sixteen feet long. The ridge beams rose over fourteen feet eight inches above the second floor. Using my ladders I set all the rafters with relative ease. Thank goodness I'd taken the time to ensure the first floor geometry followed the plans--every common rafter in each section of roof measured exactly the same length.

I needed help sheathing the roof. Hauling all the plywood up onto the rafters, setting each sheet in place, and nailing the sheet off could be done alone, but I didn't much care for the idea. I called my little brother in New York (we used to shoot each other with the pneumatic nail gun when on the same construction crew years ago). He came down and gave me four invaluable days of labour under very difficult conditions: Winds, heavy rains, extreme cold, and my hacking cough that threatened to knock him off the roof.

I made it up to him with food and alcohol.

With the roof sheathed, I built the gable end walls, essentially dropping them from the pair of rafters above, as opposed to raising them as I did the others. Now to sheath the second floor walls.

I carried each 4’ x 8’ sheet of OSB (Oriented Strand Board) up the ladder and slid it under the horizontal rope I'd rigged to the framing to keep the sheet from falling back and over me. I held it in place with one hand, and nailed it off with my other hand. Twice a sheet got away from me on the North wall, cartwheeling to the ground and nearly taking me with it. Now that I'd finally closed up the structure, I turned my attention to the interior walls.