Shop-by-hand: Raising day
Raising day
Midnight: The last trailer load of beams arrives at the raising site and, after stacking them in the order we will raise them, we call it a night.
6am: After 6 hrs of sleep on a thinly carpeted concrete floor shared with several brothers, I’m making an early morning run for 2x10 scaffolding to stand on during the raising: a forgotten last-minute expense. The remains of my budget hardly cover the cost, but it can’t be helped: both safety and ease require it.
7am: After unloading the truck, I begin to attach pressure treated 2x10x16 sill plates lengthwise across the concrete piers. There is a 6” piece of 1/2” threaded rod in the center of each pier, and each plate needs three corresponding holes so they can be bolted down. The raising will begin by placing the sills on top of these plates (with a layer of rubber between as a moisture barrier), and I’m taking the quiet of the early morning to get them set before the work of the day begins in earnest.
Sill plates, installed.
8am: The family is starting to stir and, with the morning’s first cup of coffee in hand, I eat a quick breakfast of eggs from the chicken coop. I have six chickens, surplus from a local farmer, all of whom got out yesterday in the middle of unloading the second trailer of beams when an unknowing little brother left the latch up after feeding them. Restraining the irrational anger that always seems to accompany being surprised while lifting something heavy, we scrambled to set down whatever beam was in hand to chase chickens in and out of bushes until all were caught. An amusing memory to recall as I plan the coming day’s work.
9am: My brothers and I are moving about the site making final preparations. Folding chairs are put out under a shade canopy for those who need to rest and for my grandparents who drove in for the raising. Coolers are filled with ice and water bottles. Sunscreen is passed around. Tools are found and organized. Lunch plans are made. The chickens are fed (latch down this time). The garden watered.
An early-rising collection of friends and family awaiting the first lift.
10am: Our main workforce arrives just after 10am: about 25 people of various ages and lifting abilities. The first order of business is to set the two long sills in place and drill clearance holes for the threaded rod. This done, we fit the short sills, and experience the day’s first success: the sill system goes together without a hitch! Almost nothing had been test fit in the shop - there was not time, nor space, nor help enough to do so - and I had but little help checking my layout. The specter of a measurement pulled from the wrong face, or a burned inch left unaccounted for haunted me, and it seemed all-too possible that the raising might end with the sills. "Hmmm, would you look at that, I laid this out wrong. None of the bents are going to fit. Thanks for coming everybody, be sure to grab a complementary water bottle on your way out”. That the sills went together easily, square, and level on the piers was an encouraging morale boost at the beginning of the day.
The sill system fit, level, and square. Just to see the sills and joists go together was exciting and gratifying.
11:30am: With the floor joists installed, we begin to assemble the first bent. It requires a little trimming, hammering, and ratchet-strapping to go together nicely, but go together it does. The braces are installed temporarily to be marked with a draw-bore pin, then removed and drilled. Having pinned and squared the bent, we take some time to go over the both raising plan and safety. No beams are moved until everyone with hands on it gives a verbal “OK”, and only one person (the same person) ever calls directions during a lift. This keeps us all together, prevents dangerous, unexpected moves, and focuses our strength on one part of the lift at a time. Positions are assigned, the raise explained, safety ropes are tied, the “OK”s confirmed, and the first direction is given: “up”! Ten pairs of hands slowly raise the bent, and as the tenons find their mortises, four spotters apply a little tension to the safety ropes. A few taps with the commander and the bent settles happily, square, and plumb. We were elated! As exciting as it was to see the sill come together, having something as visually impressive as a bent fit like it was supposed to thrilled us.
1pm: The sight of our first bent is the perfect backdrop for lunch: pizza, focaccia, popsicles, and cookies. But we continue to work as we eat, preparing the second bent much faster now that we have a system and experience.
The second bent follows the first, then the third, and by 4 o’clock we are ready for the top plates. This poses a serious challenge. The top plates are 16’ long 8x8s weighing nearly 500lbs each, and they need to be lifted 10’ into the air and fitted onto six tenons. Raising without machinery or metal scaffolding leaves us with one option: parbuckling, which only two of us had even heard of, let only done, before. Will the ropes hold? Can we keep the timber from slipping at the ends? What knot should we use and how do you tie it? After careful planning and staging, we tie the ropes, assign six lifters and six relievers, and the lifts are called. Turn by heavy turn, both top plates come safely up the posts and, with a little commanding and paring, settle on all six tenons. We couldn’t believe it, the parbuckling worked perfectly. With the exception of rafters, the structure was complete, and it had gone together according to plan without serious incident or problem.
8pm. With only rafters left to do, our raising crew has shrunk to a core team of 12. Those remaining are determined to see it finished today, so after a short break for water and pizza, we assigned a team to assemble rafters on sawhorses, a team to lift them up to the loft, and a team to seat them in the birdsmouth notches. At our fastest, we assembled and raised the center four rafters in less than ten minutes each. But here, at the very end, we encountered our first and only real problem. The first rafter we raised with a collar tie wouldn’t quite fit, we had to leave one end unpinned to get the tails to seat. Determined that our last rafter, also with a collar tie, should fit correctly, we remeasured and reworked the timber until everything looked good. Then we pinned both sides and sent it up to the raising team. Only once it was in the air, balanced precariously on the front edge of the frame, did we discover that the rafter would simply not seat with the collar tie pinned in place. In the end, the very last thing we did was split a collar tie tenon in order to seat the final rafter. But no one, including myself, minded. Of all the things that could have gone wrong, a mis-fit collar tie was the least bothersome error to run into. The frame could be raised without it, it was not structurally significant (with a 45 degree roof, a high collar tie exists mostly to give you something to nail siding to), and it could be fixed later. Our raising had started in earnest at 10am and, at 10:20pm, the wetting branch was nailed and we celebrated a successful raising.
With special thanks to:
Matt, Anita, Greg, Jacob, Vinnie, Becca, & Josh Larkins
John Eagan
Chris Ryland
Paul Denley
Masha Dougherty
Michael Araps
Josh Feibelman
Josiah Lott
Adam & Dante Robezolli
Dave Matthews
Adam Sandanato
Daniel McNichol
Rey Noll
