December 29, 2010

Dormer Construction: Framing

After a much needed few days off for Christmas, we're back at it. Today we're starting to frame out the dormer and will be starting with the flat portion of the roof. The first goal is to set the main transverse beam (technically, a girder), which we soon realized would be best installed into the brick wall. Literally two minutes into opening the bricks, I got a call from our neighbor in the next building downstairs. Apparently the spot we broke into was her chimney and dust and debris came showering down. Fortunately she was cool about it, and we soon had it cleaned up and were back to work upstairs.





The girder (main beam) and the opening in the bricks to support it.






Closing up the opening
Once that first beam was set, we moved onto the other members that framed directly into the posts. In the process of doing this, we established the minor pitch of the "flat" roof (all roofs, even flat ones, have at least a slight angle to allow water to drain). After the perimeter was built, we filled it in with rafters that will eventually support the roof.





Attaching a perimeter joist (beam) to a post






Installing the "joist hangers" from which the other joists are hung






All the joists installed