26/08/08

Today we finished our dormer windows. I found today quite challenging because i have never seen one of these been built before so i definitely didn't know where to start building it. once we had our first point things started to come together slowly but they didn't come without a bit of thinking. our start of point was the top of the ridge and we knew it was a 45 degree pitch so we just worked our way down from that. to get the height of the wall we took our overall height and took the halfspan and then took the height of the birdsmouth. Then we build the walls allowing for a window at the front.



After we made sure everything was level we pitched the roof and got the front level with the front plate because it was a gable end. As soon as that was done we cut the valleys and nailed them on then cut the ridge back to the valleys so we could run a trimmer from hip to hip and nail it in to the ridge. After we did that we realised that it would have been better to put the trimmer in first. next i cut the jack which had to be notched around the trimmer. Then we did the valley boards and all the other finishing bits.

20/08/08

Today we spent the whole day on an oblique roof which was done as a class. The roof wasn't as big as some of the others we have done but there was still quite a bit in it. To start off with we leveled 2 benches and then set out plate for rafters to sit on. The plates made a shape that was square at one end and at about 15 degrees on the other end. Once that was done we made sure the whole thing was square and that the 2 longer sides were parallel.

After that we then measured the length of all the sides one of which gave us the half span and wrote them done on the board. We then used those lengths to determine the offsets for the long and short side. The formula to work out the offset on the short side is (short side add Oblique end) take long side divide by 2 and the formula to find out the long side is the same except the long side and short side are swapped around.

Once that was done and the working out was done the cutting was pretty straight forward because we had all the bevels but it was annoying because some needed to be cut on an angle greater than 50 degrees and our saws cant do that. After i got past that the only thing i had trouble with was the creeper shortening but after a bit of problem solving i came up with my own way that was easier and quicker for me to do.

19/08/08

Yesterday we started our brown paper drawing on oblique roofs. The drawing was worked off one of the frames that had been pre made and was drawn to half the size. we each had a different pitch to draw to and mine was 30 degrees. to start off with we drew the outline of the frame and then drew the centring rafters and the jack in. Next we drew in lines for the hips on the oblique end. once that was done we used the red book to find out the true height and the drew a line square off the top of the hip out the height. once that was done it was joined up to the bottom of the hip with another line forming a triangle. the first side made the plan length the second made the height and the last was the true length. we also had the plumb cut angle which was made up where the second and third line meet.

the same was done with both hips before we got onto the common rafters. to start off with we found the middle and put a line square off that the height and then joined it back to the plate. this gave us the plumb cut for the commons and the length. at first i thought all of it was pointless but once i got drawing i got my head around it and saw how useful it is. After doing this i wonder how i thought i could do it without the drawing

23/07/08

Over the last 3 days we have covered a lot of stuff on roofing and have even built a small roof. I really liked building the small roof and thought that it was also done to a pretty good standard considering we are learning as we go. The part that i enjoyed most was the gable because i am still getting used to putting them together and thought it was good to see other ways of doing it. I thought it was good cutting a separate pair of rafters to go under the trimmers and before now i would have never though to do it that way now i think it is good and will be something for me to take back to work. Apart from that i liked doing the scotch valley because its not something you get a lot of and was good for jogging the memory.

During the practical there was also a lot of maths involved with a bit of problem solving for example, i needed to get a 40 and 50 degree angle and i thought it would be a challenge to do it without the protractor so i used the red roofing book. i managed to get the angles for a 40 degree cut but the book stopped at 45 and didn't have 50 so after a bit of thought i decided square a line of the the 40 degree mark and because the 2 angles have to equal 90 it made 50.

30/05/08

Today we spent all day ouside. In the morning we started off with work on our eaves and finished off pulling it all apart including the roof. I liked doing the eaves because i haven't had much experience doing this and it was sort of new to me. First off we started off setting out the boxed eaves. At first i didn't want to do it but once i got into it it was a lot easier than i thought. The most unusual part to me was cutting the notch out for the gutter to sit on but other than that it was all pretty similar.

the other type of eave we did was lined on the rake. this was deffinately a lot different to the eaves we do at work but still not really hard. the only part that i thought could really make things hard was the bottoms of the rafters. That is because all the rafters are a different width it is only a couple of mm and is allowed for with the birds mouth the only thing wrong with that is the way its done makes all the tops level. leaving the bottoms all over the place.

28/05/08

Yesterday we started our roof. We started off by setting up our scaffold and getting our joists on. We made sure the joists were couple with the already set out rafters. After all the joists were on we then cut a heap of trimmers. The trimmers are designed to go between the joists over the walls to lock the walls in and to provide support for the gyprock. Trimmers were also cut to go from the last joist to the wall plate this allows us to keep the joists back away from the hips and valleys. Once the trimmers were done we then measured in a hanger to go through the main room to support the joists. The hanger was nailed to an off cut of joist to get it at the right hieght then the joists were skew nailed to it. After the joists were all shot up we then used metal straps to strengthen the joist up more. the straps are made to be nailed to the joist and the hanger because skew nails wouldn't be strong enough to hold under wieght.

The next step after the cieling was to cut the rafters and we did that by using a bevel and the red roofing book to work out the lengths and cuts. First we started working out and cutting rafters for different angled pitches before cutting them all to suit a 25 degree pitch. Once a few commons were cut and one jack was done a few of us could start pitching while the rest cut more rafters. after there were enough rafters to hold the ridge up i jumped down and cut one of the hips using the red book to work out the length and angle of the cut. I had never used the red book to work out hip lengths before and was suprised by how close it was. Its a bit of a shame the rest didn't work out so well but we aren't finished yet.

21/05/08

Over the last few days we have been installing locks, hanging doors and skirting. So far i have hung the double doors installed the lock and done some skirting but i still have a single door to go. While installing the double doors i came across a few problems and had to try find ways to make things easier for myself without these ways i think it would if nearly been impossible. Installing the lock i thought was pretty easy but was easy to stuff up if your not paying attention or rush. I thought the hardest part was drilling out where the locking piece would sit because if it was on an angle then the door knob would sit off in the other hole and there would be a gap around. Skirting was tricky but with a bit of help from Paul it became easier but time comsuming. Overall i think i have done a pretty good job with these things but with more practise i could do better.