Installing the First Rafters

Today we installed the first three rafter pairs and put up the ridge -- a milestone indeed! We set up a cot on the floor of the loft to enable a creative method of clamping... wherein one person lies on their back and holds up a rafter pair while the rest of us scamper around installing other rafter pairs. We decided three rafter pairs would be enough to hold up the ridge (the 165-inch 2x4 which is directly beneath the peak of the roof). It took five people to complete the ridge installation -- one human clamp (on cot on loft), one human foundation (holding a 14-foot 2x4 vertical as a support for another rafter pair), two scampering drill wielders leaping from beam to beam to install metal brackets supporting each rafter, and one videographer to document the scene. The videographer was soon pulled into the fray as well though, rest assured, filming continued.

Rafters were laid out using a template drawn to scale on a spare sheet of 4x8 plywood. To make the bird's mouth cuts (notches where rafter meets top of wall) each piece was placed on the template and marked accordingly.

The location of each rafter on the ridge was marked beforehand and small angle brackets were installed on the ridge while it still lay on the ground. This meant less awkward drilling while the human clamp's endurance was being tested -- all that needed to be done in terms of alignment was to anchor each rafter to the top of the wall and then place it against its designated bracket on the ridge and drill in two screws.

The rafters are 24" on center with one exception for installation of the skylight.

The next step will be to install the remaining rafter pairs and then sheath the roof. Exciting times!