More Rafters Created and Some Were Hoisted Up!

This morning, we carried outside the nine rafters we finished making yesterday (and the day before too) and stored them in the middle of the house, ready for the installation job this afternoon.

Rafters-waiting-to-be-installed

We needed to make more room in the workshop so we could finish off the last two rafters in this batch and get them setting and drying overnight, this went all to plan as usual.

This afternoon, we rolled out the compressed air equipment, tools, and silicone glue etc. to start the process of installing the nine rafters on the “A” wall. We started on at the A7 position, next to the one rafter we had already up there (the A6 rafter). It didn’t quite fit in first time and after trying various adjustments and trimming, we got it into place and it got glued and nailed. But we realised that all the remaining rafters will probably have the same “problems” so we spent half an hour or so trimming and filing various parts on both ends of the rafters while they were down on the ground. The other adjustment that was needed was the slot in the cement panel on the walls and these were extended deeper so the Bird’s mouth on the rafters would fit down and clear the cement boards.
Now it was the turn of A8 rafter to go up and it almost fitted first time but for the top flange rubbing on the kerb wall around the skylight. We got out our electric belt sander and cleared away a couple of millimetres of material up on the end of the rafter. This one then got glued and nailed into place too. We took this example of how it is fitting so we applied the belt sander to the ends of the remaining 7 rafters.
Finally, A9 and A10 rafters went up and fitted first time (hurray!) but they were very tight on the wall end so more tools (club hammer and crowbar) were brought out to assist with the job – Phew!! These were also glued and nailed into place too and that was pretty much the end of the day.

Rafters-A7-to-A10-installed