Barn, ridgepole

The weather has turned back to rain and chills, but the chicks are growing fast - the banties are almost four weeks old and the standards are a week behind. The stock tank they're hanging out in is getting crowded, and that Just Won't Do. Solution: damn the weather, keep building.

I got the door opening roughed in last week while the weather was nice, after grabbing a clearance door from BBHIS (missing one piece of brickmold; more than half off retail). Thanks to the weather and my work schedule, work stalled right there.

I spent a little time getting the plumb cut on the rafters over the weekend, and yesterday I put together a frame for the ridgepole and got that installed. Pictures pending.

Then I tried to get a rafter up.

Plumb cut was off. Birdsmouth was WAY off.

I tried again on the other side of the rafter, so I could make a template to cut the rest. Still no go.

After that beam split when I dropped it, I decided it was time to stop fighting and call it quits for the night. Sitting at the table after dinner and doodling on a pad of paper, I figured out why things were so far off... my measurements and calculations were based on my pad-and-paper line drawings, and I had forgotten to include the dimensions of the boards.

My ridgepole-to-top-plate drop is 24", and the run is 48-1/2". Sounds like a perfect 6/12 slope, right?

Except I was calculating from the TOP of the ridgepole to the outside of the wall, not accounting for the height of the rafter - about 6-1/4" with the plumb cut. So the rise is more like 17-3/4", and the run to the *inside* of the wall is about 43-3/4". In other words - the slope is going to be just a hair under 5/12.

I think I may be on to something here. I may end up destroying another 2x6 getting it right, but I WILL get it. Eventually.