Roof beams are going back up! Luckily, it looks like we’ll be able to reuse most of the original glulam beams from the first framing attempt. Harry and his crew stacked them nicely during the demo, and I’ve kept them tarped over the last few months. After a little work with a belt sander, my current framer, Rodney, got the beams looking almost new again.
The crane has to make several trips up to my site to get all of the beams placed. Obviously, crane time doesn’t come cheap, but multiple trips are necessary because of the house design. The complex engineering, tall walls, and big spans in my home have all added (and will continue to add) significant costs compared with, say, a single-story ranch home design. That’s OK–I like what we’re doing here. But it’s worth remembering that there’s no simple “cost per square foot” calculation for new construction, and the financial implications of design choices can really add up.
This last week also saw the first snow of the season at the jobsite. Winter is almost here! A lot of people have asked me if the framing will be damaged by snow. As I posted back on January 10, 2020, the answer is: not really, no. Snow just sits on top of the subfloor and can easily be shoveled off. Freeze/thaw cycles can be hard on engineered products like plywood, though, so I’m looking forward to getting the roof on before winter really hits.
Photos taken October 13 and 20, 2020. Posted October 21, 2020.
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