September 15, 2019 – Porch roof framing in section three continues today with the installation of the ceiling joists. The joist installation process is the same as it was in section two so I’ll keep this post short.
After setting eleven ceiling joists in section three I started the solid bridging installation.
Ceiling joists and solid bridging.
I ended the day a little early so that I wouldn’t be to late getting back home. Next weekend the porch roof framing in section three will continue. I will be finishing up the solid bridging and starting on roof rafters.
September 08, 2019 – Today is renovation day 100. A milestone? Anyway, we continued the exterior wall demo in front of the bathroom. Late in the day I was able to start the roof framing in porch section 3. It was a pretty good day.
There is no more wood rot in the front wall! This morning Ryan and Robrandi removed the siding from the exterior wall in front of the bathroom. All of the oak planking in this area looks good. The last section, along the back bedroom was repaired way back in June of 2018.
Exterior wall demo Continues.Oak planking at the bathroom.Tinnler Roofing on exterior wall demo.
I forgot that the deck spans as we near the back bedroom are slightly greater than 8 feet. One is 8′-8″ and the next is like 8′-4″. I previously purchased 8 foot long 2×10’s to use in the porch beam construction. Obviously they are short and won’t work. While Robrandi and Ryan headed to out to get me some longer boards I continued the exterior wall demo along the bathroom.
When my team returned with the longer 2×10’s I built the next two porch beams. We installed them atop the next set of posts, plumbed them up, braced them off and called it a day. Next weekend I’ll start the porch ceiling joists and solid blocking.
Porch beams in roof section 3.Building wrap on the exterior wall at the bathroom.
September 07, 2019 – Up early this morning. Lots of fog on the river. After our morning coffee at the lookout, I continued the plywood roof deck installation that I started yesterday.
Fog on the Juniata River.
The new roof has a low pitch so the plywood roof deck is not difficult to install. The hardest part is getting it up onto the roof!
Plywood roof decking in progress.
Although not show here, between each row, I place metal deck clips to help support the plywood edges.
The Lookout from the new porch roof.
I like to chalk line the rafter locations so that I know I am hitting each rafter as I nail down the plywood. Not every carpenter does this, I’m just anal.
Chalk lines to guide the pneumatic nailing.
Early in the afternoon I finished the plywood decking and immediately started to roll out and nail down the roofing paper. Because the first roof section we completed had 15 lb. felt I rolled a layer of 30 lb. felt over top. We had a pin hole leak at one of the plywood deck joints.
Gyeem Raj-Du-Kamar nailing down roof paper.
I worked a bit late but managed to get the entire section covered with roofing felt. We now have two porch roof sections dried in. Tomorrow we will start the third section. Hoo Raw!
September 06, 2019 – Yesterday I completed the roof rafter installation on the first span. Today I am continuing the roof rafters on the second span. The second span runs fron the mid span knee wall to the ridge of the existing roof.
First span roof rafters complete.
The roof rafters in the second span must connect to the existing ridge board. In order to gain access to the ridge board I need to cut and remove sections of the old oak roof planking. With the planking removed I can fasten the new rafters to the ridge with galvanized joist hangers.
Holes in the existing roof to access the ridge board.Second span roof rafters in progress.
Tinnler (Tinder?) Roofing
As I am installing the rafters, one of the “Tinnler Roofing” employees is stripping the shingles from the next section of roof. Man that Tinnler (Tinder) Roofing is really great! I think their slogan is “Get a Date and Go Up On a Roof” (or something like that).
Tinder Roofing on the jerb!
With the rafters in the second span complete, the plywood decking can be installed. To cover this section of roof we need 12 sheets of plywood. Since we are not keeping a large stockpile of material on site, once again we are off to the Lewistown Lowe’s.
Second span roof rafters almost complete.Lewistown Lowe’s for a load of roof deck plywood.
We got back with the plywood but the sun was on the way down. I only got two sheets installed before we had to quit for the evening.
Roof decking installation.
Tomorrow I will complete the plywood roof decking and hopefully the roofing felt. This will dry in this section and we can move on to section three. When this section is complete we have two more identical sequences to finish the new porch roof. Our goal is to complete the roof structure and hire a “real” roofing contractor to install the metal roofing material. We will see how that goes.
September 05, 2019 – The ceiling joists are complete. The next step is to construct a mid span knee wall to help support the roof rafters. Our roof span on the new porch side is 24 feet. The midpoint of this span is at the exterior wall of the cottage. The mid span knee wall is constructed on top of the exterior wall. Simple as that…
I build the knee wall framing on the ground on saw horses and then I hoist it onto the roof.
Framing for the mid span knee wall on the roof.
Once the framing is plumbed up and nailed into place, I face the knee wall with 5/8″ exterior grade plywood to keep it square and help stiffen it up.
5/8″ plywood facing on the knee wall.
Intermission
At this point I am out of lumber so I cover the roof and make a make a quick trip to my favorite store, the Lewistown Lowe’s. Be back soon…
Covered over for a quick trip to Lowe’s.
Whew, I’m back….
With the plywood facing complete, I begin setting the roof rafters in place. The first span of rafters run from the porch edge beams over to the mid span knee wall, atop the exterior cottage wall.
First roof rafter set in place. Bearing on the porch beams.First roof rafter in place. Bearing on the mid span knee wall.
I continued setting the first span of roof rafters until it was time to clean up and grab some dinner.
First Span – All roof rafters set.
As always, before I left, I closed it up for the night.
Tarped over and closed in for the night.
Tomorrow I will install the second span of rafters. They will run from the mid span knee wall up to the ridge board of the existing cottage roof. Nearing completion on the second roof section, exciting stuff!
September 04, 2019 – Just a short blog today. Woke up this morning feeling tired. Not sure what is going on. Maybe it was the constant up and down the ladders, but the only thing I accomplished today was the installation the of the ceiling joist solid bridging.
Solid bridging provides lateral support to twisted joists and it helps them maintain a vertical orientation. It also facilitates load sharing. Load sharing across wooden joists is important because of the large variation in material properties found between the joists.
September 03, 2019 – Hooray! Today I re-started the new porch roof construction. It’s taken awhile to rebuild the rotted out front wall, and thankfully, that is now complete, so let’s go.
This is the second roof section of the new porch addition the first section was started way back on June 16, 2019.
The first step is to set, plumb and brace the 4×4 Douglas Fir posts. These support the edge beams which in turn support the ceiling joists and rafters.
Set, plum and brace the porch roof posts.
Next, the edge beams are constructed from 1/2 exterior grade plywood sandwiched between two, 2×10 boards. Panel adhesive and 16 penny nails, on both sides, join the beams together.
Once complete, we lift the beams into place on top of the Douglas Fir posts. G90 Galvanized wood to wood wall ties keep the beams aligned and together.
G90 wood to wood wall ties.Porch Roof Construction – posts and beams installed.
2×6 ceiling joists are next. The ceiling joists span from the exterior living room wall out to the porch beams. They will hold up the porch ceiling.
Porch Roof Construction – ceiling joists installed.
With the daylight waning I set the last ceiling joist of this section and cleaned up for the night. Tomorrow I’ll continue the porch roof construction with the installation of the solid bridging between the ceiling joists. See you then…
July 12, 2019 – Today is another miscellaneous work day. I have hurricane ties, that I purchased from Fasteners Plus, to install on the first porch roof section. Thankfully, I made it all the way to the cottage with the three new windows without any breakage…so there’s that. Before I can continue anymore Trex decking I have to install the drain line for the kitchen sink.
First up, the Hurricane Ties. They are easy to install and help prevent lateral movement and uplift from strong winds.
Porch roof framing
I was able to unload the windows buy myself without breaking anything.
New windows safely unloaded.
After the hurricane tie installation and the window unloading I started the drain line installation. I did a quick take off of the material and headed out to Lowe’s to purchase what I needed.
Gathering plumbing supplies at Lowe’s.
Back at the cottage I started the drain line. I am basically working between two fixed points. The underside of the floor framing at the kitchen addition, and the existing tie in under the bathroom. I began by putting in the drop at the kitchen sink.
PVC drop and 90° sweep for the kitchen sink drain.
With the drop in place, I cut aligned and glued an elbow at the tie in.
Drain tie in point under the bathroom.
Working between these two points I laid out and blocked up the pipe to the proper pitch. I was hoping to get 1/4″ per foot slope but I was only able to get the minimum, an 1/8″ per foot.
At this point I was running out of daylight so I decided to complete the drain line tomorrow, in the morning.
June 30, 2019 – Woke up to a beautiful morning. Perfect time to continue the plywood roof sheathing and felt paper installation. I will need to hustle to get this all done in one day. If I make it, the blue tarps will be moved to the next roof section.
Blue traps covering the kitchen addition.
For the roof sheathing in this section I estimated and purchased twelve (12) sheets of plywood. I already had several rolls of felt paper from a previous project and a big box of 1″ plastic cap nails. I had everything I needed so I didn’t loose any time running out.
Roof rafters and ceiling joists over the new porch.
Roof Sheathing
The plywood installation went very smoothly. I hoisted the sheets up one at a time. Using my Rigid framing nailer I fastened them down with 8d ring shank nails.
One sheet ready to be hoisted up to the roof.Starting the second row of sheathing.
Between the roof rafters I installed plywood H-clips. H-clips provide additional stiffness between the edges of the roof sheathing and make for a stronger roof.
Plywood H-Clips for additional edge support.One sheet of plywood to install.
Felt Paper
After completing the roof sheathing I immediately started the felt paper installation. I had several rolls of felt paper. Some of them were 15 lb and some were 30 lb. I doubled up the 15 lb layers so, for the most part there is 30 lb felt paper over the entire section. One inch plastic cap nails hold the roof felt down.
Roofing felt paper installation.
I am happy to report that this section of the roof was dry by about 4:00 PM. I made it in one day. Hooray!
Roof over the kitchen and porch additions.
Next weekend is the 4th of July. We are expecting to have the Trex decking delivered on the Thursday the 4th. That is the delivery date we got from Lowe’s. We are skeptical but we will see.
June 29, 2019 – Just a short blog today. We had some rain that slowed the construction but I completed two more porch roof rafters. Between the rain drops I also completed some miscellaneous roof framing. We are now ready for roof sheathing and felt paper on the roof over the new kitchen addition and the first section of the porch roof.
Old meets new. Miscellaneous roof framing at living room.Two more porch roof rafter in the foreground.
Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be beautiful. We will be starting the roof sheathing. If we get the sheathing done we will immediately start the felt paper installation. Looking forward to a dry roof!
