Ledger Board

June 6, 2020

Today we secured the ridge beam and let in the ledge board for the second floor.

Ryan seems to really enjoy using the nail gun. Admittedly, I do too.

Ryan helped me measure and adjust the ridge beam so that both end walls were parallel and plumb.

The beam is extremely rigid. I’m very impressed with how light-yet-strong this LVL material is. Ryan apparently also approves.

Later on I worked on the ledger board the second floor will attach to.

By letting the ledger board in, the weight of the floor is more directly transferred to the slab.

I used a laser level to mark where to cut. In some cases I had to knock the blocking down a bit.

This cut and chisel method works very well, but creates an incredible amount of saw dust. I was struggling to see or even breath at times.

I first cut many 1-1/2″ deep slots between the marks with a circular saw, and then knocked them out with a hammer and finished the notch with a chisel.

I found working at knee-height on the first stage of the scaffolding quite taxing, but it seemed like a better idea than wielding a circular saw half way up a ladder.

The notching came out great, but it was pretty time consuming.

Letting a ledger board was standard when ballon framing was all the rage. More recently, platform framing has taken over. Mostly because it’s easier, not better.

I secured the ledger board with 3-1/2 in. screws which also pulled it the rest of the way.

Final Walls & Ridge Beam Up
First Rafter