Completing the Dormers and Chimney
To complete the dormers their two "fronts" were built together to insure symmetry. If you look close you will
see a slight difference in the width of the two front sections. When you're dealing with real wood sometimes the
dimensions don't come out exactly as expected. This was the case with the beam and purlin system where the
openings for the dormers were concerned. Nothing difficult but a word to the wise is always check both
dimensions and don't assume they are necessarily going to be the same.
There are a total of three dormers in this design but only two can to be built right now. Each will have a full
window with a half round on top so the framing was just a little more complicated than normal. We sheeted the
center section but left the ends open so they could be firmly attached to the sides. After installation each side
was sheeted from the outside.
This was another case where a little muscle was required.
Each front section was lifted into position and then slid out to the end and aligned before being secured.
The front section of this dormer is now installed and ready for the side sheeting.
Here is the completed dormer waiting for the roof framing to be installed.
It was now time to build the dormer’s roof structure. This design uses a rafter system so the first order of
business was to cut a prototype rafter. Once one rafter was complete and fit properly the rest could be cut using
the original as a template.
A full sized sketch of the dormer gable end was drawn on the sub floor and both were constructed by laying it
out on the drawing. Here is the first one waiting for sheeting.
Once sheeted the gable end was installed followed by the ridge beam. In this case the ridge beam was made up
of two 2x12s about 11' long.
After the ridge beam is in place it's just a matter of installing the rafters. In this case there are two 6x8 beams
that are bolted to a pair of rafters and lag bolted to the dormer walls to act as collar ties. The rafters will be
hidden by T&G when the finish carpentry is done but the 6x8 beams will remain visible.
All that's needed now is roof sheeting and that will come next week.
With the dormers complete we are now almost ready for our roofer to install the insulation and sheeting on the
main section of the house. One of the final jobs is to construct the exterior section of the chimney. We are using
a propane fired Lennox heating fireplace which just requires a "chase" to house a stainless steel flue. In this
case all that's required is to build a sheeted box where the flue will exit the roof. The sheeting on the outside
will be covered with the same manufactured stone product that will be used on the entire chimney inside the
house.
No rocket science here. Just a simple framed and sheeted box with a temporary cover nailed on the top.
Viewed from the outside the chimney doesn't appear very tall. Before we started this we checked with the
building inspector's office and were told the height of the chimney should be based on the fireplace
manufacturer's recommendations. Our Lennox unit specified 12" clearance for a chimney built on a roof with
less than a 6/12 pitch. In our case the roof pitch where the chimney is actually located (the rear section of the
roof) is 4/12 so 12" of clearance is sufficient. Allowing for a total of 6" of rigid foam insulation and sheeting, the
chimney was built 18" high. When the fireplace unit is installed the flue cap will extend another 6" or so above
the chimney top which will give us more clearance than the manufacturer requires.
The final job before the roofers can take over is to install any wiring that needs to be hidden in the ceiling. This
wiring will supply power to things like ceiling fans and accent lighting.

Our building inspectors consider that any wiring buried in "sandwich" type construction using rigid foam (as in
our roof system) be treated exactly the same as if it was within a sandwich style wall system. This simplified the
hidden wiring installation immensely. All that was required was to secure the wires every 12” to 18". We made
sure to route the wires away from any purlins since the nailers for the roof sheeting will be lag bolted through
the foam insulation into the purlins. This will insure that no lags pierce the wiring during the insulation and
sheeting installation.
Check back soon.


That's it for this week. We are taking a long weekend off to rest before
the roofers get started next week. While the roofers are working on the
main section of the house we will be starting construction on the most
important part of any house. No, it's not the kitchen. It's the garage!