Sunday, March 27, 2016

Hoisting joists, after leveling with ya

Muggs was able to seesaw the first beams onto posts after I left on Friday.  With the home-visit we had a couple of days in Inverness with Alex interspersed around some skiing and some hanging out in Berkeley, and I was able to put in some time both on my own and with my young helper.  The biggest challenge in this phase of the project is to make sure all the surfaces are as level as possible, at the appropriate levels for each one: the ledger in this case is pretty darned straight and level (which is not always so--if a house has shifted or sagged, the ledger may have to be tilted slightly, with everything matching that slope, or else door-sills won't line up properly), but we also have three different sets of beams and posts, which all have to match each other and the ledger.  Because these lines are physically separated by as much as 16 feet, and the overall size of the deck will be almost 30 feet long, a small error in any direction can be amplified to cause big problems--and even with a laser level it is super tricky to get everything calibrated.

This is how I left the project yesterday, after several hours chasing my tail getting the left-hand beam line*  level and close enough to the ledger level, as well as getting the right-hand beam line straightened and level both with the ledger and the other beam.  This process involved shortening the three short posts and re-setting the left hand beam (thanks for the muscle, Alex), and then shaving a portion of the other beam which had about a 1/2" bow to it.  Since Golden State Lumber had run out of 4 x 8" pressure treated beams, we only had two of our three pieces, plus about 8 of the short joists.  This meant that we had nothing to span the 16' gap unless we splinted a couple of pieces together and temporarily set some joist hangers so that the joist would rest on the beam and we could set a level on top.
   *Alas, I just looked again and realize the left hand beam (nearest the rose bush) is just out of the picture, as I was shooting quickly with my phone, duh.

The other interesting challenge in this process is evenly placing the joists so that one avoids the ledger bolts and sets up the ends of each run.  There's always some trial and error, with marks crossed out.   Muggs and I still have to work out some of the end details, as well as bridge the gap we left in the ledger where the main electrical drop does down the house front, along with a copper vent pipe.  Here as elsewhere, getting the heights and spacings as consistent as possible will pay dividends down the line.  I also plan to fill the voids in the siding (like the one just above the bolt and washer) with expanding foam, in hopes of discouraging the bees that seemed to be interested in those areas when the sun warmed everything up; I'll shoot in some anti-termite spray before I do so.  Fingers crossed.

I couldn't resist installing the first few joists on Saturday afternoon.  I've secured them to the beam, and--to help keep them from twisting--nailed in the blocking that I cut from the least straight of the joists we got.  The first thing I'll do when I get back up there is to scab on a ledger patch over the pipes, add more joist hangers, and add more joists.  Muggs should arrive Tuesday with the rest of the lumber, and the plan is to place some plywood and some planks on the bare joists as we progress eastward and place the last (mid-span) beam.

I'll attempt to update this using the iPhone as a cellular hotspot--at least until AT & T shows up on Thursday to install the new system (let's give wishful thinking a chance, shall we?).

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