Pre-truss post - or main floor walls revisited.

I thought I'd do a revisit of framing the main floor walls since the original post mostly focused on the air-sealing aspects while omitting some of the other odds and ends that had to be taken care of before the trusses could be installed:

• Install corner post and beams that support the roof over the main entry.
• Install second top plate.
• Fabricate and install staging for truss installation.
• Mark top plates for truss installation.

Doesn't sound like much, but it took about an extra week longer than I planned to get all these little things sorted out.

The view from a scaffold at the east wall just prior to installing the trusses.

Corner post and beams for the main entry:
I wasn't confident enough in my measurement skills to locate this corner post properly before we backfilled the foundation so I decided to install it after the main floor walls were in place, giving me more reference points to work off of. This decision necessitated digging a hole back down to undisturbed earth - about 8'. The below grade portion of the post is a pressure treated "8x10" (4 laminated PWF 2x10s), while the temporary above grade portion is a "6x8" (4 laminated SPF 2x6s). I built the beams from local rough sawn spruce 2x12.

One problem with digging into the backfill was that the sides of the pit were very unstable - not safe for someone down there. This necessitated placing the footing and post into the hole from above. We used a mini-excavator (equipped with a thumb) to grab the post from the top and lower it into position in the pit. The post and footing are tied together with steel pins, but I tied the two together with poly rope to make sure the footing didn't fall off during installation. I'm not sure if we had good aim or just good luck, but the footing only needed a tiny prodding with the mini-hoe's bucket to get the whole thing perfectly plumb. One last detail - since there is nothing too strong preventing the post from being lifted off the footing, I placed a skirt of rigid foam near the top of the post to prevent adfeezing ("frost jacking").

I tied the top of the post in position by bracing it to the house with 2x4s - then we backfilled again.

The bigger of the two beams over the covered entry is this 4-ply rough sawn 2x12 beam that spans 12'. I chose rough sawn lumber for the look. Each 2x12 is full dimension (ie: 2" x 12") so the resulting beam was very heavy. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any help lifting this thing into position so I had to get creative. Using some scaffold, heavy-duty ratcheting tie-downs, muscle power and strategy, I managed to get the beam in position by lifting each end a few feet at a time - without throwing out my back.

Installing the second top plate:
Pretty straight forward procedure. The reason I waited until this point to install the second top plate all the way around was so that I could use it to tie the entry beams to the main floor walls. When I was building the beams, I used my circular saw to trim the top edge of each 2x12 so that when laminated into a beam, they were all flush - rough sawn lumber isn't very consistent dimensionally speaking.

The second top plate ties the entryway beams to the main floor walls at the intersections indicated by the red arrows.

Staging for the trusses:
Using scraps of 2x4, I fabricated triangular brackets which I then face nailed to the studs about three feet below the top plates and approximately every four feet. I ran planks across the tops of the brackets and nailed them down with duplex nails. I had some rolling scaffold to use as well so I really just needed staging at either end of largest trusses.

A simple walkway for whoever will be working that end of the trusses.

Marking the top plates for trusses:
After I had finished framing the floor structure I verified the dimensions of the house before requesting that the trusses be made. Again, Kam Ridge provided me with a layout for the trusses based on my measurements. Using this layout I marked the top plates for each bearing point of every truss. There were two truss sets - one big set that covers the main square of the house and a smaller set that covers the "bump out" and entryway at the northeast corner. I started by finding the centre line for both axes of each truss set. I took my time and triple checked my measurements to ensure they were correct. Once all the centre lines were marked, I worked outwards from each centre line marking the truss heel locations 24" o.c. Having all the truss heel locations marked ahead of time payed dividends during truss installation.

Empire Ants - Gorillaz