While the concrete was curing, Matt set up shop. A lot of wood was delivered.
As well as a trailer filled with tools.
To add to our absurd amount of construction equipment, Matt brought over a boom lift and a scissor lift.
And most importantly, a plastic throne was nestled in a shady spot near the construction site.
In one day, the crew constructed all of the stud walls for the garage. They assembled them on the flat concrete floor.
The following day, they erected the walls.
They put some of the plywood on and stabilized the walls with temporary bracing.
The crew worked on the door and window headers the next day.
The large garage door headers are quite beefy. It makes me question if Sam and I framed our shop adequately…
In two or three more days, the crew framed the shed.
Sam tested out the scaffolding during our nightly inspection.
It’s hard to believe they did all that in a week.
We kicked off the next week with the truss delivery! The truck was carrying more wood than a extra large log truck. I’m still baffled as to how the truck got here from the Portland area. It would either have to cross a narrow bridge and/or go through some low clearance tunnels. Teleportation seems more plausible.
Chris, our trusted crane guy, arrived in the morning. The crew had already set about 10 trusses by the time I woke up.
The trusses went up so quickly!
The crew made it look effortless.
The only person who appeared to be doing physical work was Matt’s youngest son, who was in charge of the tag line. He ran back and forth about a hundred times and controlled each truss as it was being craned into position.
To add to the excitement, a second crane showed up to deliver the trusses for the shed.
The cats watched in awe (or outrage) as their world changed before them.
By lunch time, the last truss was set!
The roofing plywood went up in a day. The whole process was slightly sickening to watch since it took us months to frame the shop (and two weeks just for the roof plywood). I guess carpenters know a few more tricks than we do. They are very precise and use spacers to line up the studs and trusses perfectly so they can use full sheets of plywood everywhere. (Whereas Sam and I had to shave about an inch off of every sheet!)
The garage has one shear wall in the middle of it. The wall also divides the space into two halves – a climate-controlled side for the nicer vehicles, and a non-temperature controlled side for the construction equipment. At the last minute, Matt convinced us it would be cool to put a garage door in the wall.
The garage framing was complete! All that remained was the shed roof and a little more plywood. The crew didn’t use a crane to set the shed trusses, but the process was just as fast. So fast, they were done by the time I went out to take pictures.
It was really cool to see they buildings go up so quickly. The big lesson learned was NEVER frame a building yourself.
We all enjoyed a quiet weekend without nail guns, droning motor noises, and loud beeping.
diamondgapbuild.com 