Birth of a shop

[Don Baer]

Marty,
I can see how excited you are as would I be. Can't wait to see the roof trusses going up or if you are alone can't wiat to see em in place.

[Jim Becker]

Kewel shots, Marty!

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And a free bonus avatar for your efforts, too...

marty-av.gif

[Marty Walsh]

Kewel shots, Marty!

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And a free bonus avatar for your efforts, too...

marty-av.gif

Thanks Jim...

And thanks to Denise's efforts y'all get to see my ugly mug on all these posts!

- Marty -

[Jim O'Dell]

Hey Marty, it's nice to put a face with the building!! I bet it was a little unnerving watching those trusses slide off and hit the ground. I'm anxious for you, for tomorrow to come. I bet you have a hard time dropping off to sleep tonight. Let us know how many times you look out the window during the night to see if the sun is coming up yet!! Jim.

[Norman Hitt]

Marty, I sure hope they send a helper besides just the Boom Truck operator, to hook up the trusses on the ground, or you're sure going to be One Tired Puppy by tomorrow night, from just running back and forth to hook up each one and then climbing back on that scaffold. Let's see.........how many of those trusses did you say.....

I will say though, that by the time you finish this shop, you are probably going to be the most "In Shape" woodworker on the whole SMC Forum.

Good Luck tomorrow.

[Marty Walsh]

Hey Marty, it's nice to put a face with the building!! I bet it was a little unnerving watching those trusses slide off and hit the ground. I'm anxious for you, for tomorrow to come. I bet you have a hard time dropping off to sleep tonight. Let us know how many times you look out the window during the night to see if the sun is coming up yet!! Jim.

Jim,

You were all too right...I've been sitting outside watching the moon for hours. And it's still at least another hour or more before the sun will take its place.

- Marty -

[Marty Walsh]

Marty, I sure hope they send a helper besides just the Boom Truck operator, to hook up the trusses on the ground, or you're sure going to be One Tired Puppy by tomorrow night, from just running back and forth to hook up each one and then climbing back on that scaffold. Let's see.........how many of those trusses did you say.....

I will say though, that by the time you finish this shop, you are probably going to be the most "In Shape" woodworker on the whole SMC Forum.

Good Luck tomorrow.

Norman,

I know it'll just be the driver. I'm hoping he'll take pity on this old man and give me an occasional hand hooking up the trusses.

BTW, there are 33 of them...

- Marty -

[tod evans]

mornin` marty! you`ve got a busy day ahead. given a good boom truck operator it should go real smoothly.....good luck today and hope to see pics of a sheetless roof before i head home ..tod

[Marty Walsh]

mornin` marty! you`ve got a busy day ahead. given a good boom truck operator it should go real smoothly.....good luck today and hope to see pics of a sheetless roof before i head home ..tod

Thanks Tod,

I'll do what I can to get pics posted in time...

- Marty -

[Jim O'Dell]

Well, it's after 9:00 your time Marty...Do you have the first one up yet????? Hope your day goes well! Jim.

[Jim Becker]

And thanks to Denise's efforts y'all get to see my ugly mug on all these posts!

I think you look swa-vay and dee-boner in those shades!! And the angle makes you look busy...which you are... Good shot!

[Chris Padilla]

Sweet stuff, Marty! Have fun today assembling your roof structure!! Nice avatar, Mr. Becker!

[Marty Walsh]

I Couldn't Set the Trusses...

It was impossible to do alone so I gave up!











N O T ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

ALL 33 ARE SET AND PARTIALLY BRACED!

Today ranks right up there with one of the hardest days of work I've put into the shop so far. Here's how things went...

At 8:45 this morning, the boom truck driver calls and says he's out at the paved road. I drive out to meet him and bring him back down the shop driveway. He parks the truck right where I had intended him to, which tells me I did a good job having the trusses dumped.

When the driver gets out of the truck, he looks at Denise and I and says "Is your crew running a little late"?

I raise my shades, look him right in the eye and say "THIS is my crew". He immediately tells me that "There's NO WAY two people can set all these trusses. I'll call my boss and let him know we have to cancel until you can get a crew in."

Well, I spent the next few minutes explaining that everything he saw in front of him was built by me alone. I also explained what I knew (from reading and talking to folks on here) about setting trusses. I guess I impressed him since he agreed to "give it a try, but please don't be ashamed to tell me it's too much and you need to postpone until you get a crew in here." Before long, he realized we were serious, I was working as hard as it took, and there was no quit in either of us. In fact, he wound up volunteering to help us, and we probably wouldn't have finished today without his help! He said he "just couldn't have a woman working so hard while all he did was operating the boom". Thanks again Denise, for guilting him into working with us!!!

Well, TEN LONG, HARD, ONE HUNDRED DEGREE HOURS later, we're done!

Here are some pictures to prove we did it. Oh, and in case you haven't figured it out yet, Denise took the day off so at least I wasn't out there alone. I'm sure the driver would have flat out refused if it was just me alone. Thanks Denise...again and again!

Here's the first (gable end) truss being lifted over the shop walls:

Attachment 44891

It was pretty exciting to see this happening. So much so that Denise had to climb down off her scaffolding to snap a shot!

And here's a shot that shows how the trusses got rigged to be lifted into place:

Attachment 44892

It was a pretty simple process since the driver/truck came equipped with straps with big metal hooks on the end. He'd simply hook the trusses at the junction of the attic room wall and the webbing, and lift away. We gave him a length of clothesline that he tied to the end of each truss. He used that to keep the trusses from swaying to wildly as he was hoisting them up to us. Once each truss was set, toenailed on the ends, and had four simpson stabilizers attached, I'd climb down off the scaffolding, grab a 12' 2x4 reach up to the top of the trusses and as he let pressure off the straps, I'd swing the hooks away from the trusses so he could go load another.

Here's a shot Denise just had to shoot:

Attachment 44893

That's the boom operator and I on one of our all too necessary water/gatorade and smoke breaks. Even though I'm older than he is, it was HIM that asked if we could break occasionally. (That made me feel pretty good... ) I figure we set an average of 6-8 trusses between breaks. I have to hand it to him, even though he's ONLY responsible for working the boom, he was sweating away walking up in the trusses with me nailing in the stabilizers. (Rest assured, he was well compensated for his extraordinary effort) At one point, he told me he'd never done carpentry...and now had no desire to do it again!

I intended to add more details, but I'm a little (no, A LOT) tired, so without further ado, here's the final proof:

Attachment 44894 Attachment 44895

I simply can't explain how exciting it is to have "almost a roof" on my shop. Not to mention, the partial shade that the trusses cast has cooled the shop down at least 10 degrees!!!

Tomorrow I get to go out there and add hurricane clips at each end of the trusses. We simply toenailed them in while we were paying for the boom truck by the hour. Tomorrow I can take my time and nail the eight nails per clip, four clips per truss. I also have to add loads of additional bracing tomorrow. The minimal bracing we got done today consisted five simpson stabilizers per truss, and four sheets of 3/4" CDX ply ripped down the middle and used it to tie the outside of the attic room walls together.

Ok, I'm rambling and am having a hard time typing. I'll clean this post up later (or tomorrow), and add a few more details.

Sorry.
- Marty -

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Marty........Outstanding! Unbelieveable! I don't have to tell you....You owe Denise! Congrats! You pulled off a big one today!

[Vaughn McMillan]

Woot!

Congrats Marty on a job well done, and on having more preserverence than most folks would have.

- Vaughn