Framing - Part 1

When I got home after work on Friday afternoon, my pile of material was still neatly stacked on the garage pad. Fortunately it had not walked away during the course of the day, thanks to my ultra-high security fence, proped up and held in place with a couple screws. Unfortunately, I had to clear the pad so we would be able to lay out the walls in the morning.


I slaved away by myself for the most part into Friday evening, just after dark. Matt got to the site in time to laugh at me struggling with the remaining three pieces of siding, before helping me move the OSB sheathing and the roof trusses. We headed out for some grub so we'd be ready for a full day of work on Saturday. The material was still there in the morning, just in more piles.


Bill was the brains of the operation, we just moved, lifted, held down the pad, etc. while he got the framing laid out and ready to be nailed together.


JD and Pinkerton provided security in the early morning hours to keep the alley traffic moving and make sure nobody tried to steal anything.


Before too long, we had the first wall laid out, ready to be nailed and moved into place. There were really only two walls of any interest from a framing perspective. The wall on the house side has the two windows and doors. The alley side has the opening for the garage door which involved a couple of stout LVL headers was a bit of a beast to move into place, but it all got done safely.


We got the first wall up without too much issue. The rough opening for the window had to be fixed, but a 4' x 4' window would have provided a nice view and plenty of ventilation.


We kept working our way around the foundation to get the walls built and put in place. Things started shaping up as the day went on.


Bill even let us make use of the tools where the walls were simple enough and risk of screwing something up was at a minimum. Pinkerton finished nailing off a wall without anybody losing an eye or a finger.


At the end of the day, we had four walls standing, braced, plumbed, leveled, straight and true.


The assignment for Sunday would be to get the roof trusses in place and get the building sheathed. We opted for a slightly later start to give the neighbors a few more minutes of quiet and to let everybody get some good sleep before more heavy lifting.