Roof Trusses

It was an interesting week for building.  The plan was to get the rafters and ridge beam up but advisement from sharper minds convinced me to construct the roof trusses first thus giving the ridge beam somewhere to live first was the better plan.  That's where the math comes in.  This English major isn't great with math.  I'm not even competent with math, not even simple math.  Luckily I had help this weekend.  Mostly I just assisted but I'm perfectly ok relinquishing control if it means getting a finished product that is done correctly.

I got my first taste of working in bad weather this weekend as well.  I had taken down the circus tent tarp earlier in the weekend to remove the damaged experimental ridge beam supports that broke under the weight of the tarp.  Have I mentioned how heavy and unwieldy this damn tarp is?  When the rain started getting worse I decided to put it back in place.  Math isn't the only thing I'm stupid about.  I climbed up on the top of my loosely secured ten foot above the ground walls and proceeded to solo pull the heavy tarp up.  Heights, wet wood, and stupidity don't really go well together.  I fell off the wall.  Super luckily the tarp I had been pulling up and throwing over my head had been pooling behind me and I fell into an improvised airplane evacuation slide ending up in a soggy undignified heap but unhurt.  I'm hoping I learned a lesson about working alone in unsafe conditions.  I counted my blessings and carefully dragged the tarp into place.  Then my help arrived and we built our trusses which was the only thing that went off without a hitch.

The next day I discovered another stupid thing I did.  Apparently water is subject to gravity.  Since I had removed my high point ridge beam braces my roofline was now flat.  During periods of continuous rainfall a flat tarp will collect said rainfall and under the forces of gravity will turn into a rather impressive water balloon.  But wait there's more.  In an attempt to drain my roof lake I pushed up in an attempt to coax the water over the wall and relieve itself harmlessly on the gravel below.  That tarp is heavy but when it has several inches of rain on top of it the weight is unmanageable.  That didn't stop me from poking at it with a spare 2x4 and poking a good size hole thus transforming my carefully protected dry insides into my first example of indoor plumbing.  With more help I was able to prevent some of the deluge but the damage was done.  I spent most of the rest of that build day trying to dry out my OSB floor.  I also shored up some studs that needed more support, finished a few small projects and installed some jack studs to support the loft.

Notice the trusses and plastic wrap I stapled to the floor.

My next debate is the ridge beam itself.  Originally I bought two ten foot 2x8s that I planned on joining together to act as my ridge beam.  I knew that a single piece of wood would be stronger but I couldn't figure out how to get an eighteen foot long board from point A to point B.  Delivery ended up being twice as much as the board.  I think I've decided the inconvenience of begging for access to a truck is worth it to make sure the spine of my manor is strong.  If I can get the beam to the work site I think installing the trusses and ridge beam is next on the list.  If I'm lucky I might even get a start on the rafters.

Truss temporarily put in place and loft studs