Raising the Barn: Day 6 (Final Day) – green oak barn

Friday 23/4/21

This morning Ben completed the pegging of the building and I prepared for the raising of the hip rafters and secured the righthand wall plate and ties.

The raising of the hip rafters is probably the most dangerous part of the barn erection and so lots of thought has gone into the method which has been discussed and modified over the last two or three days. We now have an approach which I think is safe and will work.

Here’s the method:

1. First hip rafter
   1. We will raise the ridge the same amount on both sides using especially prepared packers to give us more space to work in when positioning the top of the hip rafters.
   2. Lift up the first hip rafter and hook it on the birdsmouth and rest the other end at an angle on to the scaffolding tower (brakes on!).
   3. Strap the top end of the hip rafter to the scaffolding tower.
   4. Secure the birdsmouth end of the rafter with a strap to prevent it from jumping out of the birdsmouth while allowing some movement.
2. Second hip rafter
   1. Lift up the hip rafter and hook it on the birdsmouth and rest the other end at an angle on to the scaffolding.
   2. Secure the birdsmouth end of the rafter with a strap to prevent it from jumping out of the birdsmouth while allowing some movement.
3. Both rafters
   1. Lift the top end of both rafters and bring them together under the raised ridge.
   2. Lower the ridge to engage with the ends of the hip rafters
4. Second hip
   1. With the ridge still raised, repeat the above for the hip rafters at the other end of the building – you can see this part of the method in the video below.
5. Ridge
   1. Lower the ridge. This should lock all four of the the top hip joints into place.
6. Birdsmouths
   1. Adjust the position of the birdsmouth joints and secure with stainless steel fixings to the corner ties.

Here goes…

This is a time lapse of the fitting of the righthand hip rafters.

Here’s another time lapse of the lefthand hip rafters.

We are fortunate that Jane was around and captured the fitting of the lefthand hip raters to the end of the ridge. None of the top hip joint were fixed until they were all fixed!

These were the last joints to be assembled.

All very satisfying.

Here’s a shot of the completed frame. I’ll take more pictures tomorrow when I’ve cleared the scaffolding and other clutter. Watch this space!

Key posts

How it started
The plan
The site folder
Dealing with wonky timber
Moving into the third dimension
Raising the Barn
Putting up the softwood roof
Fixing the wall panel frames: Day 1
Roof complete