Completing the Roof Construction

This week began with the construction of the last dormer. Dormers look nice from the outside and add a lot of character to the house but I must say they can be a pain to build. Not that they’re difficult, just time consuming. What you see here is the basic structure for the dormer walls.

Building a dormer is pretty much a one person job so while I was busy with the dormer I had my son cut and install insulation blocking between each rafter in the bonus room. This is necessary not only to strengthen the rafters and keep them from moving but also to keep the insulation that will be installed between the rafters from migrating out to the soffit where it will do no good.

While we were busy in the bonus room our roof framing crew showed up and began working on the rafters in the shop section of the garage. I had them do this particular work simply because they could do it in one day (where it would take my son and me two to three times as long) and I didn't relish standing up on three levels of scaffolding nailing rafters into that 27' LVL beam.

It took these guys less than two hours to get this far. Sometimes there's just no substitute for experience.

The dormer in the bonus room is slightly shorter than the ones in the main section of the house so it had to be framed a bit differently which took a little more time.

Here is the structure after it's been sheeted. The window is slightly higher in this particular dormer to ensure it will clear the porch roof which will blend into this section later.

During the time it took me to sheet the dormer the roof framing crew finished the rafters in the shed section of the shop.

The next chore was to design, cut and install the rafters for the dormer roof. Here you can see the front rafters with the cut-outs for the out lookers which support the overhang and front fascia of the dormer.

With the first set of rafters installed a section was cut out of the front sheeting for the out lookers. As you can see this was easily done with a hand saw.

At the same time I was working on the dormer out lookers the framing crew was working on the out lookers in the garage. Hopefully you can see how they support the roof overhang.

Fitting the 2x4 out lookers is simple. Once the second set of rafters is in place they are fit in position and nailed in place.

Once I was finished with the dormer the crew took over and sheeted the bonus room and dormer. This roof section serves to tie the main section of the house to the garage.

When we asked to have the crew frame the rafters in the shop they gave us an estimate and price for 12 hours of work for this task. It actually took only 9 hours to get all this work done and since we had budgeted for the full 12 hours we decided to have them help with one another task I wasn't looking forward to. Installing the second floor windows.

With two guys outside on extension ladders and one working inside they made quick work of all the windows on the second floor. Here you see the small windows in the second floor bathroom, computer room, and the larger loft window. They averaged about 15 minutes per window. Well worth the money.

Here is the dormer window in the spare bedroom.

This is an example of a surprise. When I framed the circle top windows I expected them all to be the same size. We had chosen a particular window for the dormers in the house and I assumed that the circle top window in the garage would be the same. This was not the case. I had assumed that all the circle top windows would be changed to the size we chose and for the dormers this was true. The one in the garage however was not changed, because it wasn’t a “dormer”. This was not a huge problem because the difference was only 4" in height but it was a surprise none the less. Modifying the framing to accept the slightly taller window only took about an hour so it was no big deal. Lesson learned; always check the blue prints before framing for a window, even if you think you’re sure of the size. This problem was my fault. If we had taken more time during the designing process we would have caught this difference and the window in the garage would have been changed to match the dormer windows. So again, take your time during the design process and make sure the company understands exactly what you want. In this case this minor problem was a result of haste on our part.

We had enough time left after all the second floor windows had been installed to have the crew help install our patio French Doors. As with all the windows in a Kuhns Brothers Log Home this is a high quality Anderson unit. The installation took about an hour and would not have been very easy for less than four people due to the weight of the door alone. Extra time must be taken during the installation process to make sure all the locks and latches work properly and the doors swing and close without interference. Later lattice will be installed to give the doors the look of divided light glass.

After all the work for the week was completed I walked through the house trying to find something that hadn't been covered yet. Not an easy task I must say, however this picture of the bonus room came to mind. Originally we had planned just to have standard roof trusses here which would have made this whole area an attic. After thinking about this a while we decided that the cost of converting this area to a usable heated room was well worth the cost. This is also a good example of how a space may appear different when it goes from paper to reality. We fully expected this room to have much smaller usable space but as you can see it really is quite large. A nice surprise, for the "boss" anyway since this will be her sewing room once the house is finished.

If you look closely you may be able to see the difference between the garage window and the dormer windows. Most people probably won’t even notice a difference.

Here you can see the back side of the house and the French Doors. We don't want to take a chance of dropping a rafter while building the porch roof and possibly breaking a window so the rest of the first floor windows will be installed after the porch roof is in place.

This is a shot of the back of the shop area. The section of roof without an overhang will blend into the 12'x 40' back porch.

For you "car guys" here's a shot of the inside of the shop area. The "boss" is about 5'6" so you can get an idea of the depth of the shop. You can also see the two 6x6 posts that help support the Glue-Lam beam in this area.

This picture shows the ceiling height in the shop area. There are collar ties that have yet to be installed between the front and rear rafters but even with these in place there will be room enough to put a full sized 4x4 pickup on a 4 post lift and still clear them. Remember what I said guys, in the giant scheme of things enlarging the garage is very inexpensive compared to enlarging the living area. Keep this in mind. There is NO reason not to build the garage of your dreams when you build your log home.

Finally one last picture of the business end of the garage with the roof on. I'm really looking forward to having the time to "play" out there once the house is complete.

That's it for another week. Next week we will have our excavating contractor here to finish the backfilling around the foundation prior to starting the porches. He'll also be digging the trench to hook up the house to the septic system. At the same time we hope to be starting on the porch roof system.

Check back soon.