Three Walls Raised

May 23, 2020

Today we raised the first end wall and built and raised two side walls.

As I had hoped, the wall remained rigid enough, but it did bend a little at the sides.

It was a little tense a the wall lifted. The balloon framing design gave the wall lateral strength.

Once the hoists reach a certain angle they became tricky to operate without standing in no-man’s-land.

First we lifted the gable-end wall. The chain hoists worked great, raising the wall to about 45ยบ as expected.

The higher we got the wall, the longer the boards needed to be. Eventually we had 12 ft. boards just dangling down all over the place.

Next, as we pushed the wall the rest of the way up with long boards as we let out the chain hoists slowly.

As we went for the final push, there was a lot of running around and stress levels were rising quickly.

Once it was vertical we started working on bracing to keep it there. Peter brought a hammer drill so we used some concrete screws to anchor the supports.

We had to make room for the other walls to be built, so we braced it only in the center.

With the first wall up and braced, we were ready to assemble the second and third walls, which are smaller and much easier to raise.

Peter’s 12″ miter saw was very nice to use. I’m now convinced I need to get a larger miter saw.

We then cut and laid out the materials for the side walls.

Adam suggested the header would be much easier to assemble separately than piece by piece in the wall. I was inclined to agree.

Adam arrived and helped assemble the side walls.

Each wall used exactly three and a half 4×8 sheets of OSB, requiring only one rip-cut cut for the two walls combined.

We covered the walls with OSB and Tyvek for structure and moisture control.

We placed some boards under the end of the wall before lifting it all the way. That was if we had to drop it our toes wouldn’t get crushed.

These walls were much easier to erect. Adam, Peter and I were able to lift them into place without any special tools.

The top-plates were designed to overlap, creating a strong bond between the walls.

We aligned the wall to the guides on the floor and tacked it into place.

The bracing left some pits in the floor, but they will be easy to fill.

The structure was now stable enough to remove the bracing. I later added a ratchet strap at the top, just for peace of mind.

I also took a moment to teach my son how to hammer a nail into a board.

I then moved some things around to make room for the next three walls.

Rigging
Making Space For Fourth Wall