Rafters(WorkDate: 2005-11-14, WebpageDate: 2006-02-25)

This was one of those major jobs we hadn't anticipated doing. Our roof as held up by 2x4 rafters! This was way below code for the spans they were supporting. 2x6s beams were the minimum. We knew we wanted to replaced the ties (the horizontal rafters) with 2x6s, but we hadn't initially thought we needed to replaced the rest of the framing. Well, that idea quickly went away. The 2x4 rafters were in terrible shape and insufficient in the first place. We decided the best course of action was not to remove the roof ;). In no removing the roof, we decided to also leave the existing diagonal rafters - mostly because it would have been difficult to remove them. Instead, we simply augmented them with a new structure that was fully capable of taking the entire load by itself. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, remember how I said 2x4s were insufficient for supporting the spans they were? Well, and we didn't anticipate this, the roof had bowed. That meant our new, straight 2x6 rafters didn't FIT under the curved roof!

The solution was painful. From cutting the 12' ties we had several 12"x6" triangular wedges. We put up 4 sets of rafters at the same time and used these wedges, hammered between the two rafters at the apogee, to force them into place and thus straightening the bowed roof. Then we inserted the ridgeboad into the gap which was held open by small 2"x2" spacers. Of course, the ridgeboard was didn't quite fit into the gap, so the ridgeboard had to be painfully hammered into place for all 4 pairs.

And we had to do this two and a half times. We had two sets of 4 rafters and one set of... less (2? 3?). Anyway, here are some pictures. This first set shows the construction in progress. It shows after we had installed the first set of 4 rafter-pairs. Notice the old 2x4 ties are still in place. We didn't remove any of the old structure until the new structure was done.

Below are pictures of the finished product. These pictures were taken -much- later. You'll see the center half-wall and some electrical work being done. You'll also see our "center-beam". It is essentially a pair of joined rafter-ties run at a lower level that separate the kitchen from the living room. This center-beam will have track-lighting mounted on top if it reflecting off the vaulted ceilings.

The rafter project kept us busy until somtime mid December.