Friday, January 24, 2014

In the rafters...

Hi Everyone!  One of the things my brother did while he was here for Christmas was to help my dad re-enforce the rafters (the new boards in the pictures below) in our shop.  The shop/machine shed was built about 45 years ago by my grandfather, my Uncle Bill and his boys.  It's called a pole shed because of the poles that are sunk into the ground and then attached to each other by cross boards at the top and the bottom and the rafters sit on top of the top cross boards with the hole thing clad in corrugated metal sheets.
The last year or so, we've been watching a few cracks develop in the middle rafters (sorry, no pictures).  When the wind blows here on the hill, it really blows.  In fact, most days we have at least a breeze.  And I don't like to be in the shop when it's really windy.  It's really loud in the shop and if you look up, you can see the roof moving up and down which has helped to make the rafters crack.
Dad and I couldn't have done this alone and didn't have to thanks to my brother.  He and my dad used the bucket on the tractor to push the new boards up, raising the roof to bring it back where it should be and than attached the new boards with no less than 60 screws.  This eliminated the bow in the cracked rafters and thus shirring up the roof.
Where it bowed, it held water that dripped into the shop and now it runs off the roof like it should.  So thanks to my brother and Dad, we've gained years of life out of that old roof!  Now to just figure out which dust system to use to contain all of that sawdust I generate.... Thanks for stopping by!

4 comments :

  1. When I read your title, I expected to see stuff "stored" in the rafters, not repairing the rafters. Why did my mind go that way? because I need to clean out the rafters of MY garage. That in itself would make a great blog post. lol
    So happy y'all got that taken care of. It's so much easier to repair than to replace.... the shed that is. :)

    how envious I am of your space!

    gail

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  2. There is nothing like a loving family. They are always there to help out when the need arises. Your brother and father did a great job in bring some new life back into your work shed! Happy weekend!

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  3. I wish my brother was as handy with jobs as yours is. Does he live far away ?
    I'm glad you're going to feel safer in your workshop, and I'm sure your family is happy too.

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  4. Oh wow. Your family are all so talented. How wonderful that your brother was willing to help out. That looks like it was an impressive amount of work.

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