Roof Framing Archives

July 1, 2019December 7, 2023

Overhang Framing at the new Kitchen Addition

Day #69

June 25, 2019 – Today was a strange day. While cutting lumber for the overhang framing at the new kitchen, a newly hatched baby bird fell from the sky and almost hit me on the head. It was quite disgusting. Apparently a Red Tailed Hawk looking for an easy meal stole it from it’s nest. The mother Robin attacked the hawk and it dropped its lunch right on the board I was cutting. Needless to say I was startled! Sorry for the gross image but I had to share.

The dumpster was supposed to be emptied and returned. Somehow that never happened. Once it is emptied we can continue the exterior wall demolition. We need someplace to put all the debris.

Full Dumpster — I needed this dumpster emptied and returned.

Since the roof is open we have birds trying to make new homes inside the cottage. I must have spent the night with several birds because when I woke up they were having breakfast in the new kitchen. They built a half ass nest inside a cardboard box filled with empty water bottles and proceeded to lay an egg. WTF!

Nest In A Box — Bird nest and egg in box full of empty water bottles.

Anyway the overhang framing went well. The overhang at the old kitchen was complete earlier so now both sides of the gable end overhang are complete. There are still some miscellaneous framing items that must be taken care of but we are getting closer to having a new roof.

Our goal is to have this first section of the roof framed and covered with roofing paper before the 4th of July weekend. It is going to take some work but i think we can make it happen.

Postscript

At this point the overhang at the other end of the porch was way in the future but with a look back, here is a look forward: Porch Roof Overhang – West Side and West End Overhang – Continued.

June 24, 2019December 7, 2023

Roof Dry In Begins – Plywood & Felt Paper

Day #68

June 23, 2019 – I was up early this morning, with high hopes of getting the roof dry in process started. I had to make a run into Lowe’s to get the plywood roof sheathing and felt paper. As it turns out Lowe’s opens at 8:00AM on Sunday’s so I had about two hours to kill. What better way than to continue demolition on the old kitchen exterior wall. A got a good chunk of it out before I left and I took down the tarps on the living room wall. It’s pretty much wide open now.

Old Kitchen Exterior Wall Framing — Removing the old kitchen exterior wall framing.

Old Exterior Wall Framing — Tarps removed from the old living room wall and the framing demolition at the old kitchen wall.

Now I’m off to Lowe’s…..

Before we could start putting any roof sheathing in place we needed to demo the last of the old kitchen roof at the gable end. When that was complete I constructed a ladder type overhang and new gable framing.

Ladder Framing - Overhang — Ladder style overhang framing on the old kitchen side.

Gable End Framing — Gable end framing in the old kitchen side.

Now we have an overhang supported by the gable framing so the roof dry in begins.

Roof Dry In…

We installed 5 sheets of 5/8″ plywood roof sheathing on the new rafters over the old kitchen. This was followed up with a layer of #30 lb roofing paper held in place with green cap nails.

It was to late in the day to start another roof section so we decided to clean up, and tarp the roof back in until next weekend. We didn’t get as far as I had planned but I set the goal pretty high. Next weekend we will continue the roof dry in. The next goal is to totally enclose the new addition to keep the birds and insects out. It’s been kind of buggy inside!

June 24, 2019December 7, 2023

Old Kitchen Roof….GoodBye!

Day #67

June 22, 2019 – The miscellaneous roof demolition is complete. The new structural support beam across the end of the living room is complete. The roof ridge beam and support column are in place. Now is the time for us to say goodbye old kitchen roof!

Today’s focus is the complete demolition and removal of the old kitchen roof. We started with cutting and removing the 1′ thick oak roof plank. After the plank was removed we cut and pried loose the full 2×4 solid oak rafters and ceiling joists.

The cottage is constructed with rough cut solid oak framing. After almost 70 years it is harder than rock! At the end of the day the only remaining portion of the old roof was the gable end.

Roof Demolition — Oak roof planking removal.

With the old kitchen roof gone rafter framing for the new roof continued.

New Rafters — New roof rafters and ridge beam..

Porch Rafters & Ceiling Joists — Roof rafters and ceiling joists over the new porch.

New Porch Roof — New kitchen and porch roof tarped up at the end of the day.

Tomorrow we will demo the remaining gable end on the old kitchen roof. We will build a new gable end with a one foot overhang and begin placing roof sheathing. Immediately after roof sheathing we will install a layer of 30 lb roof felt to get us dried in.

PS: I broke down and bought a Rigid 21° 3½ Round-Head Framing Nailer and I’m loving it. You can really put down some nails with this rig. I can’t believe that I built (back in the day) my whole house without using any pneumatic s. What was I thinking…?

June 24, 2019December 7, 2023

Scaffold, Demolition & Roof Rafters

Day #66

June 21, 2019 – Yesterday I pulled six scaffold bucks, six braces and ten planks out of my shed. I loaded all of this, my baker scaffold and a six foot stepladder onto my trailer for the trip to the Cot-Taj-Mahal. My plan is to start framing roof rafters and dry in a portion of the roof this weekend.

On Friday when I arrived, the first order of business was to I set up the scaffolding. I put the baker scaffold in the old kitchen. One section in the new kitchen and the remaining two sections in front of the new porch roof. For our roof framing it’s much easier to work off scaffolding than it is to work off of ladders. This should be a time saver too.

Scaffold Section 1 — S-Style Walk Thru Scaffold in the new kitchen.

Sections 2 & 3 — Scaffold sections in front of new porch roof.

With the scaffold set up done it was time to get started. I completed the roof demolition above the living room ceiling. This allowed me to trim the end of the new structural beam and install the last wall anchor.

Wall Anchor — Wall anchor at structural beam. Full 2×4 solid oak studs and top plates.

Roof Rafter Framing Starts…

I had just enough daylight left to frame the first new roof rafter on the old kitchen side and two roof rafters on the new porch side. On the kitchen side the first rafter is actually sistered onto and existing rafter. This will give us a solid nailing surface for the plywood decking material. The rafters on the porch side are a much longer. They are supported mid-span by an extension of the new kitchen wall.

Porch Roof Rafters — The first roof rafter for the new porch. Scaffold and ladder below, Lookout in the background.

We are off to a good start on the roof framing. Tomorrow’s forecast, beautiful with no rain, for once. Perfect for putting on a new roof.

June 18, 2019December 7, 2023

Porch Beams & Ceiling Joists

Day #65

June 16, 2019 – It rained most of the night but thankfully we did not take on any water. Must be a good tarp job. Today, between the rain drops, we set up two sections of porch beams at “Brenda’s Deck”. We also started the ceiling joists / roof framing for the porch roof.

As we gathered the tools and materials to get started I realized that we were short one post cap and one post base. Since we were framing two porch beam sections we needed three caps and three bases. We only had two of each. Robrandi and Brenda from “Brenda’s Deck” ran out to Lowe’s and brought back the missing hardware. Thankx to them for coming to the rescue.

While we waited for the hardware we installed the rest of the exterior plywood sheathing at the new kitchen walls. We will now have to access the new kitchen from inside the cottage.

When the ladies returned from Lowe’s we framed up two sections of porch beams, nine porch ceiling joists and one row of solid bridging between the joists. It was drizzling the entire time. Rather than continue to work in the rain we stopped for the day. Time to pack up and go home.

Kitchen Exterior Wall Sheathing & Porch Framing — Kitchen exterior wall sheathing complete. Porch Framing started.

Porch Beam & Ceiling Joists Framing — Two sections of porch beams and some porch ceiling joists framed up.

The best thing is that I didn’t have to move my temporary outside light pole. The ceiling joists are higher than the pole. That was awesome and it saved a couple of hours of work! I’m such a great planner!

Next weekend, weather permitting I hope to start the roof framing over the new kitchen addition. I have to remember to bring down a scaffold section or two and my Baker scaffold to make life easier.

June 17, 2019December 7, 2023

Ridge Beam and Support Column

Day #61

June 8, 2019 – The structural beam is installed and the living room ceiling is supported. It is time to build and install the ridge beam for the kitchen addition. My plan is to have an open ceiling in the new kitchen. To accomplish this feat we need to install a beam to support the roof without transferring any load to the exterior walls.

The large beam we installed last weekend supports the end the ridge beam at the living room. A new 4 × 4 column will support the ridge beam at the center of exterior kitchen wall. Today we will continue any miscellaneous demolition necessary to install the roof support beam.

First we fueled up with some vegan breakfast sandwiches. J U S T Egg, Tempeh, vegan cheddar cheese and a little vegan mayo cooked on the grill in a cast iron skillet. Toasted whole grain bread slices round out the recipe. Many thanks to our Hawaiian Chef!

JUST Egg Breakfast Sandwiches

JUST Egg Breakfast Sandwiches…Umm!

Corner Post Location - Ridge Beam — Exposing the corner to install a new post support column.

Support Detail - Ridge Beam — Support for the existing ridge board at the living room side.

Support Detail — Support detail – Existing ridge board, existing rafter cuts and pocket for new ridge beam.

New Ridge Beam — Kitchen ridge beam and support column framed in place.

Tomorrow we will begin framing the new kitchen addition walls. The new space is starting to become well defined. Exciting….!