Timber Frame Arrived

Thursday was cool and overcast, but I eagerly awaited the delivery of the timber frame for the house. The roofing timbers were already in site, having been delivered a day early.

Roof Timbers delivered

The delivery was due some time after 10am, but at 11am I recieved a phone call from Truss-T-Frames advising that the frame would not be delivered until after 2pm, as there was a delay in getting the police escort across the bridge. Police escort! I had not imagined that the load would be that big. but apparantly any oversize loads require a police escort across the bridge over the shoalhaven river at Nowra.

So I quickly rearranged my meetings for the day and used the extra time to discuss the details of my roofing quote with the roofers and look at and price sand, for both the walls and the render. In the Shoalhaven their local river sand is not surprisingly hauled out of the Shoalhaven River, but it is surprisingly a sooty grey colour. Fine for the walls but no good for render. It looks like we will be using Botany sand brought down from Kurnell from the render, so the walls will be sand coloured as if the colour looks ok in the tests we will do we hope not to have to put oxide in or paint the render.

 

Not long after 2pm the oversize truck arrived, togther with its two escort vehicles that carry the flashing lights and oversize signs. The truck used the wide backlane access to the property, as I doubt it would have been able to fit down the battle axe driveway. There was a little damage to the frame in transport, one section that would be cut away for a door frame anyway and a second section where a nogging had broken and so the frame above lost its support and the top plate pulled away from the studs. Hopefully this can be easily put back together.  

The crane on the back of the truck lifted off the frames in two lots, carrying the over the garage, just fitting into one of the only areas on the block big enough and clear enough to fit them. Thankfully that morning I had moved more of the mulch pile away, as this room was needed to fit the frames. The only further difficulty was locating the frame set out diagram. Each section of the frame was clearly labeled and having spent so many hours pouring over the plans I knew them off the top of my head, none the less the diagram would be useful and needed for the location of the tension bracing. The man from Truss-T said the diagram was usually taped to the last batch of frames. In this case batch 6 of 6 was right on the bottom of the large stack, after much looking between the frames the diagram was spotted. But  a later e-mail from Truss-T-Frames has enssured that we will have it at hand before we get to the bottom of the stack of frames.

That afternoon I  met a builder on site to discuss putting the frame up. There was much talk about eaves details and my original preference for unlined eaves was abandoned in favour of the neater look of boxing the eaves in. This will also resolve issues the frames had raised with me about protecting the timber rafters, and particularly the end grain. I will however line the eaves with corrugated profile Colourbond with the corrugations running paralel to the roof edge, this maintains the aesthetic I was seeking and also my bid for low maintenance.

Next week the frame goes up and I get to see for the first time in full size the proportions and mass of the house.