Something other than Hebel

With my old faithful circular saw out of action, today we have an opportunity to attack another job I've been looking forward to for a while - installing the rafters to finish off the garage roof structure.

First cab off the rank: fit the rafter top plate to the wall framing. First, we ran a string line along the top chord of the jack trusses at either end of the roof opening to find the height at which we need to install the top plate. Then, with these two points known we ran a chalk line between the two and marked out the position of the plate at each wall stud. Finally, I cut a 20mm rebate into each stud with my Christmas present cordless circular saw, which we then chiselled out square. This allowed us to snugly fit the 120x45 LVL timber, which was screwed to each stud using two of the 100mm bugle-head batten screws we're using to secure the Hebel panels.

This sucker's not going anywhere :)

With that in place, we could set about installing the rafters.

To secure these to the top plate I'm using off-the-shelf 140x45mm joist hangers, and birdsmouthing the rafter timbers at 15º so they're a neat fit in the hangers.

I don't yet have them, but these will be secured (in addition to the nails) using 40mm coach screws to both the rafter and top plate. I may even add to that with a length of hoop iron around the plate as well, to resist any tendency of the rafter to pull away from the wall.

At the truss end of the rafter I'm supporting it with a 90x45 stud, cut at the top at a matching 15º and trenching the log to provide a stable "footing" for the stud. The whole thing is then nailed to the adjacent truss, and the rafter is gang-nailed to the stud.

Working all of this out with the first one and building up our rhythm took a little while, but once we hit our stride we had all seven installed in next to no time. There are still two to go, one at either end of the opening but these are the ones which will form the outer triangular wall sections and I still haven't arrived at their final design, so they will wait.

With the rafters in place and looking sensational, we couldn't help ourselves. With an hour before we needed to start packing up to make Gareth's flight home, we decided to throw some ply sheeting up there as well.

We didn't get many installed (probably just as well until I finish tying the rafters down and securing the joist hangers) but it's a great feeling having the garage roof taking shape!