Rafters: Part 1

Chris has spent the last several weeks working out the rafters.  He's building them up on top of the walls, then lifting them and securing them in place.  They're heavy!  Somehow, he got the first one up with only my Mum and Dad helping.

It was tricky, and probably not as safe as it should have been, but they got it up!

Chris built the second level wall that goes through the centre of the house first to provide a stable surface to slide the rafters along before lifting them in place.  You can see the spaces for the windows that will look into the main living area from the kids common room

Once the rafter was in place, it was secured by cross pieces, and rope

Because Chris is building the rafters up on the walls, he can only build 4 at a time.  He builds them in a stack before lifting them up one at a time

My Dad, Steve, has helped with most of them!

My Mum, Jan, has helped too!

Chris lifts the peak, and walks it over to the edge of the centre wall

Then he uses a board to lift the peak up, while someone pulls a rope tied to the peak, looped over the bar Chris installed at the edge of the East wall

Chris switches to a longer board to lever the peak up

He keeps a short rope securing the peak to the wall so it will not fall over into the rafters that are already secured

Steve anchors the pulling rope from below

While Chris secures the rafter above

Mum can swing a hammer too!

Then Chris joins the two rafters together with the strapping that the metal roof will be secured to once all the rafters are finished