No big bad wolf at work here but...I did promise at the beginning of this journey that I would post all issues related to building this house whether good or bad. Well, that being said we had a minor set back...um...the wall fell down. Or I should say we pulled it down trying to get it square. We attached a winch to one of the walls and a tree to try and straighten it just a little bit and that's when it happened. Unfortunately, my dad was by the wall when it fell on top of him. It was a scary moment. I had to take apart some of the wall to get him out. Basically, his arm got pinned in between the trailer frame and the wall and something cut a laceration on the top of his head. We scrambled to the emergency room. You can see the pictures I took while in the emergency room. They put some staples in his head and x-rayed his arm but luckily there was no fracture just some major swelling.
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| In the emergency room. |
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| It's hard to tell from this picture but his elbow is pretty swollen. |
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| Pallet wall fall down go boom :( |
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| Looks pretty scary huh?! |
Needless to say we called it a day. But he came out with me the next day with the role of 'supervisor.' He still helped me lift a few things which was pretty awesome considering what had just happened. He's pretty tough to say the least and I am just glad he is okay. It could have been a lot worse.
Official rant:
Just want to say that if there are any readers out there that thought the pallets were not strong enough and not a building material, you are still wrong. Even though the wall fell these walls will be very strong! The pallets turned out fine after the fall. What failed was the bottom plate of the stud wall. I was planning on going back later to add some long carriage bolts through the stud wall all the way through the trailer frame. So when I do that it will be very very strong. Then I am also going to tie in wire cables through the trailer frame up through the walls and over the rafters and back down through the other wall and the other side of the trailer frame.Once I tighten those cables down that thing won't be going anywhere! It's a similar system used to tie down mobile homes while traveling or to increase stability due to high winds.(There... rant over!)
So now back to work repairing from the fall.
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| Back up and running! Adding sheathing. |
So that day I had my friend Curtis come help me lift the OSB panels for the first row on each side. This is actually the hardest part to do if I would have had to put the first row of panels up by myself. I have a trick for the other higher rows.
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| Thanks Curtis! |
One of the 2x6s broke when the wall fell so now I am replacing that. Luckily I am getting these 16' 2x6s for free! They are not cheap at the store. So these next few pictures are me putting up the 2x6s all the way around the top of the house.
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| Getting the 2x6s back up. At least I have a ladder this time! |
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| Done with adding all of the 2x6s... now for the trimming. And I have a reciprocal saw! |
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| Have to cut the excess 2x4s that are sticking out of the top. |
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| All 2x4s trimmed. |
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| You can see the pitch of the roof clearly now. It drops about a foot from back to front. I tried to maximize head room for the sleeping loft so the roof is about as high as I could legally have it to be road worthy. |
Now I had to add top plates around the top of the studs for added stability and holding part of the rafters.
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| Added 2x6 top plate. |
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| Top plate on front. |
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| Back wall top plates. |
The rafters were a little tricky to do by myself but with wood clamps and a ladder it makes it possible. It's just a lot of up and down the ladder and back and forth to each side. But each rafter is on a 24" center.
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| First rafter in! |
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| Close up of outside of the top of stud walls. |
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| Close up on the inside of the stud wall where the rafters attach to the 2x6 and the top plate. |
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| More rafters in! |
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| Done with rafters! |
Multiple views on what I have completed so far in the next four pictures.
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| Back to one man sheathing. |
Like I said the sheathing for the next two rows on the walls are going to be easier than doing the first row. When the first row is complete I can nail in a 2x4 that sticks half way up the piece of sheathing and simply slip in the new sheet of OSB behind the 2x4 and on top of the first row. Once I get it up there I can let go of the OSB and straighten it up and screw it in!
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| This 2x4 is the other hand for applying the sheathing. |
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| Two rows of OSB complete on one side. |
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| Two rows of OSB complete on the other side. |
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| Temporary diagonal supports on the front corners. |
I put these supports in to try and stabilize it a bit more. It seemed a little shaky but as I added more OSB panels it just got sturdier and sturdier.
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| Starting third row of OSB. |
The third row of OSB was a little more challenging because I had to cut the angle of the roof. Plus it was very windy that day so when you are 10' up on a ladder holding a large section of sheathing it is somewhat tricky to stay balanced when the wood is acting like a sail! But I got it eventually. It also helped to pre-drill in the screws on the ground so I didn't have to fight that up on the ladder.
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| I sure am glad I thought of this 2x4 idea! It was a windy day! |
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| Complete! |
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| Starting third row of the other side. |
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| Done! |
The roof was pretty easy because I didn't have to cut but only one piece. I guess the hardest thing was getting the panels on the roof. But really it was just time consuming drilling in all the screws into each rafter. And if there were any seams where the sheathing met and there was not a rafter underneath I went back and added some extra 2x4 rafters to make the seams stronger.
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| Now for the roof! |
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| Lookin' good! |
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| Roof sheathing complete! |
With the roof complete the whole house really feels a lot more sturdy. No more shakiness! The whole house just rocks a little on the axle springs which is what it's supposed to do.
The last thing I got done this time was the roofing felt. I was going to purchase some roofing material made by a company called Grace ($75/roll) but it was just too expensive compared to roofing felt ($17/ roll). I also thought I could use house wrap on the roof but on the roll of house wrap it says not to do that. It doesn't give a reason why but I guess it just won't hold up as well as felt. I don't know. I also smashed the crap out of my index finger on my left hand! Not a good finger to smash when you are a guitar player and you have a performance in a week! But hopefully it should be better by then.
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| Roofing felt on + one smashed finger with the hammer. Ouch! |
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| Finished the felt just before the rain! |
The next thing to do will be to put the sheathing on the back wall and then house wrap the walls. Hopefully, there will be no set backs this time but you never know! I also have some interesting news about the land and farm situation...or should I say lands and farms!! But I'll get into all of that soon enough! Tune back in next time to find out!
Wish me luck!
