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12/08/2009: "Saving The Shop"

OK, everybody is sick of hearing about the barn... the weather is getting colder, with a chance of snow... so, time to work on saving the shop. One of the contractors who came to look at the barn took one look at the shop and said that I was about six inches of snow away from a collapse there! I already knew that.

The shop used to be a chicken coop, I think. It has ventilation, and lights in the walls, and it is the right shape for a chicken house. At some point a previous owner must have decided to make it more habitable for humans, and so they insulated it with fiberglass and put drywall over the interior. Trouble is, the shop was never designed that sturdily, and the added weight of the drywall caused some deformation of the structure. Plus, I inadvertently exacerbated the problem: the original roof was simple corrugated tin over purlins that were rotting, and at some point in 2006 I paid to have a real shingle roof put on. However, shingles and plywood decking are heavier than tin, and this added to the problems. But at least the roof was no longer leaking.

The top photo shows Lou as we started out running stringers across the shop to form makeshift trusses. We had to cut holes through the drywall, and then support the stringers coming across while we attached the ends; we used a little X-brace that I made as an adjustable support, or "third hand."



It was a cold day, probably only high 30's in the shop. Lou had been up a good part of the night with an infant granddaughter, so he told me I was going to have to be the brains of the team. Luckily, I had written down a procedure earlier that morning, so I had some idea of what I was going to do (originally, Lou was going to be off at work, and unable to help). One of the key tools that I acquired for this job was something called a "scrooge clamp." I got it from Lee Valley Tools; it's basically a large threaded rod that connects two plates. You can attach the plates to two pieces of wood, and then turn a handle on the threaded rod that makes the plates come together or move apart. In this case, we used it take up the tension on the stringers after we had affixed the ends to the walls, leaving a gap in the middle. This ensured that the roof would not sag further until these braces started taking up the tension - we pre-tensioned them.

It all worked like a champ, as you can see below. Once we got rolling we had a good, steady rhythm: Lou cut holes while I trimmed stringers, and then we each took an end to fasten them to the side walls. I think that it should remain standing throughout anything but an exceptionally deep and wet snowfall now.



Next week: back to the barn, I guess. We still need gutters on the north side!