wednesday 11 feb 2 double 0 nine

this week we are learning about truss roofing. this has its advantages over stick roofing as there is less time on site and less larger timber sizes. on monday we spent the first have of the day on the computers and hearing from graeme about the basic principles of truss roofing and about how it evovled. saying that triangles are the strongest structure as they are unmoveable. we also ran through and made up a step by step structure of how we where to go about building the timber roof truss, the project construction plan. we also had to highlight the possible hazards such as slips and trips and measures to avoid these problems occurring. the safe work method statement.
We then went onto to site for the second half first of all building out scaffolds with moveable scaffold and also more permenant variety. in this session we where teamed up in groups of 3 with matt chris and i in a team. we proceded to attach the wall plates on. but only on the outside perimeter in the oppisite direction of the common trusses as we had two flush gable ends. we had to read of plans and get the sizes spot on as the trusses are made off site to suit.
on the tuesday we were back out on site and spent the whole day there. we first erected the front and back gables bracing it off with clamps and metal already attached using clamps. at the ends we attached with triple crips and screws. we then strang a line and pitched the rest of the gables off this. we then used the crown end trusses to mark out where the trunicated girder truss would sit. we then attached the trunicated girder and slotted in the crown end trusses to this using girder clips. it was then time to fit the jack trusses and hip trusses making sure that the valley truss all line up correctly. we then fixed this off. this followed by adding the creeper trusses making sure the hip truss is straight. using a straight line we then fixed off the second valley truss using trimmers to stabilise the structure. we then repeated the process on the other side. then as every day we packed up the very hot scaffold.
That brings us to today were for the morning we braced the bottom to stabilise then braced in an X shape over the two sides of the roof as X orV are the strongest as there always in tension and clout nailed these on every truss twice and when bent over on end 3 nails. then adding the valley boards we made a mistake with this however and did a 500 spread and its meant to be a 400 spread. then we started to add the batons doing the hip ones first then doing 900 centres all the way up. as it was hot very hot work was slow hopefully tommorrow we will finish the project. this will be followed by knocking it down then onto a test in the afternoon. i will include some pictures of some of the stages of work.