Taking a look back on those beginning steps, it seems like such a long time ago. In reality it's only been two and a half years. (it's presently summer of 2015 as I write this) Brad graduated middle school the day after we poured the first footings. School was out before we started the wood framing. It seemed like such a long road to travel, but it's really not been that far. Mostly working on the weekends, and after work during the week we have actually came a long way.
Sometimes I wonder if others who face a challenge in life, face it the same way. Do we all kick ourselves in the ass and get moving again? Do some lay down and let whatever comes there way run them over? Are we really that much different? Am I that much different? First hand experience tells me that only a person with an iron will is going to make it through something like this and do what we did. But there must be others. I can't be the only one, we can't be the only ones.
So back to the current problem in June of 2013. We had a house to build, we had a time budget and a monetary budget. We had to meet both, or it was going to be a bitterly cold winter in the shop. I decided that to inspire the family I would say nothing. There's nothing you can say to someone that just cannot see what the end result will be. Most of the time they can't see the end anyway. To those, this would be an obstacle that you have difficulty overcoming. I told everyone to have faith in the plan and it would all come together. I would inspire them to work through action. I would be the first one up, the first one out, the last in, and the last one to bed.
On June 18th the lumber arrived that would become the second floor.
I gave the kids a crash course in framing. We decided that all dimensions would pull from the south and west sides of the house. We started the rim joist all around the house and set the sixteen inch centers. I let the kids do some of it themselves. Brad was obviously the heavy lifter, but he also had an eye for some engineering. Samantha seemed to be really good at keeping the technical details in her head. Savannah understood the overall plan. Together they had everything they needed. That first day was not incredibly productive since we only had the evening to work. The kids agreed to work on their own the next day while I was at work.
This is the upper foundation with the beams in place on their peers. Some of the sil plate is down on the north side.
Slow start on day one. Only a few floor joists were in place and crowned.
Lumber is obviously cut from trees. Trees have a natural direction they grow. When you cut lumber from them the lumber has an arch in it on it's narrow edge. That's called a crown and in order to have a nice flat floor we needed all the crowns to point up when installed. The nailer should not have to stop and check each board. It is up to the layer to set the board on the framing with the crown in a particular direction. In our case, we decided all crowns went to the south. That way the nailer could grab the board and rotate it so the southern edge was facing up, and nail it in place. Theres more to it than just grabbing a board and throwing it on the rim joist. Everyone's job was important, and everyone had to be thinking when they were working. The kids had gotten this down pretty good, and when I came home after work, this is what awaited me.
Brad being the best at heavy lifting was a layer and he crowned the joists. When they had a row ready to go we went to town with the nail guns.
Now you might be thinking, kids? nail guns? saws? dangerous? and the answer is, yes, it can be dangerous. They need some supervision to start. They also need some training on the tools. Which is why none of them are nailed in yet. You also might be thinking, nailing boards together is brainless. I would say, not so! Each floor joist must have (according to the IRC) a minimum number of nails. That number should be the dimension -1 2x4's get 3 nails in their ends, 2x6's get 5, etc. But you also must cross nail each framing member. It's easy to pull a nail straight out, but it;s hard to pull one that is bent. Pulling a nail straight out that was put in at an angle is just as hard as pulling out a bent nail. These are things my kids learned and now know how to do. If we did this over again, they would be as good as professionals.
By the evening, this is what we had:
We were almost half way across on that first day. Once the joists were down Savannah took over on gluing the flooring, Samantha nailed (at an angle of course) and I threw sheets up on the floor. We would rotate out once in a while so each one knew the others job, and everyone got a bit of a break. By the end of that first weekend we had laid most of the sub-floor with the help of my brother in law and Derek's friend Chris. Monday would come and that would be the end of most of my working on the floor until the next weekend. There were some beams that needed to go in over the basement to span the sixteen foot hole over what would become the stairs. That's something the kids really couldn't do at the time.
While we stood back that Sunday evening to see what we had accomplished, the kids were excited. They were happy for the first time in 4 months.
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