Main Garage Roof Structure
This week we started by sheeting the garage gable ends.
Each gable is slightly different. The front and back gables are 3 1/2" shorter than the center gable and the
center and rear gables have a beam pocket built in for the LVL ridge beam which will span the shop area.
Here you see the front gable with the cut out for the window. The front of the garage has a storage area on the
second floor and this window will provide light and fresh air if we decide to use this area for something other
than storage in the future.
One of the final jobs prior to the crane arriving was to build a gable end for the bonus room. This wall will tie
into the garage roof and will provide access to the storage area above the garage. You can see just to the left of
the door a pocket for the Glue-Lam beam that will act as the ridge beam for the bonus room.
At the other end of the bonus room a pocket is cut into the exterior log wall.
Here you can see the material that will be removed to create a pocket for the ridge beam. Most of the material
was removed with a plumbers bit and the rest with hammer and chisel. This pocket took about 1/2 an hour to
complete.
First thing Wednesday morning the crane arrived. In our case this particular crane was overkill but a crane is a
crane and the right tool can save you hours of hard labor. Along those same lines we had our roof framing crew
stop buy for a while and help set all the trusses. With their help we were able to set all three gable ends, all the
trusses and beams in less than 2 1/2 hours. When you consider the labor cost of the crew and the cost of the
crane we actually saved money by having them help. If we had done this ourselves we would have had to pay to
have the crane available for the entire day and the crane would have cost us more than the 4 man framing crew
did for about four hours work.
The first order of business for the crane was to set the first gable end. Believe me there was no way to do this
by hand. A crane was mandatory.
The framing crew made quick work of setting this gable.
After the front gable was in place the crane hoisted each truss into position.
With an experienced crew this part will go fast. They averaged under 4 minutes per truss.
After the trusses were set the second gable end was lifted into position. This gable separates the storage area
from the vaulted ceiling in the shop.
Finally the rear gable end was set in position. A 27' LVL ridge beam will fit into the beam pockets at the top
and tie the front half of the roof to this gable end.
This LVL beam was heavy. An engineered beam like this was necessary to span the required 27' and still
provide enough strength to meet the relatively high snow loads we have in this area.
Next a 27' Glue-Lam beam is set in the rear section of the shop area. This beam will support the knee section
of the roof as the pitch changes from 10/12 to 4/12. This will all become a bit clearer in the next couple of weeks
when you see how these rafters are installed and the way this section of the roof comes together. If you look
closely you can see that the beam pocket for this Glue-Lam allows for us to adjust the height of this beam. This
was necessary to "fine tune" the support for the rafters in this area because we “raised” the garage roof a few
inches in order to have all the facia blend together the way we want.
Here is another view of the two beams that will support the roof in the shop area.
The final beam was another Glue-Lam for the bonus room.
Now you can see how the ridge beam in the bonus room fits in the pocket the "boss" chiseled out of the solid
log wall. This pocket was about 3” deep. The beam is held in place by two 10” Lag bolts in an “X” pattern.
With the crane work completed our framing crew got to work sheeting one side of the garage roof. This will
provide enough strength to keep everything together till they can get back to complete sheeting the roof. They
"worked us in" for this effort and will be back in a week to 10 days to finish.
With all the trusses set and the roof partially sheeted you can now get an idea of how big this storage area
really is. I must admit that it is larger than either the "boss" or I had imagined.
It was now time for us to get back to work. The bonus room roof is a conventional rafter design. Because all the
rafters are the same on each side a “master rafter” can be designed, cut out and test fitted. After the master
has been determined to be acceptable all the rest can be marked and cut out. In the case of this room the rear
half of the roof is different than the front so we had to go through this process twice.
With the two masters cut we temporarily installed them so we could mark the exterior log wall for a slot which
will accept the roof sheeting. Because the exterior log wall is rounded it is easier to recess the roof sheeting
into the wall than try to sculpt the sheeting around it. This also creates an excellent seal against the weather.
By placing caulking in the recess before the sheeting is installed and then running another bead of caulking on
the top side we will have a double layer of protection against the rain.
Here you see the "boss" with her trusty chisel removing the material for this slot. It’s a hair over 5/8" thick
and a maximum of 1 1/2" deep at the crown of the log and 3/4" deep at the valley.
A scrap piece of 5/8" sheeting is placed in the slot against the master rafter to make sure we'll have a good
tight fit.
The rafters are finally installed in the bonus room. There will also be a dormer constructed in the front center
section which will allow for light and ventilation.
With all the rafters installed in the bonus room it was time to call it a day. You can see the space above the
kitchen door for the dormer. This will be the first order of business for next week.


Well that's it for another week. We will be ready for the roofers to
finish the sheeting by the middle of next week and once the dormer is
completed we will start on the front porch construction.
Check back soon.