all the posts and main beams are up

We finally finished putting up all the posts and main beams recently.  It was a proud moment to get the last post and beam up.  A job, that before we started it seemed 'too hard', got done fairly easily and simply (we were lucky to get a bit of help from friends and family which is greatly appreciated!).  We didn't need to hire a crane or borrow a tractor to lift the timber, just a bit of ancient 'technology'! 

These posts were prepared a little differently to the the 'inner' posts.  Instead of having a bracket at the top of the posts, a slot big enough to fit the main beam was cut out of the top.  All the posts sat on top of the stirrups that were concreted into the ground.

Its nice to see most of the timber up in the air, where its supposed to be, rather than in a stack waiting to be prepared and put up.  Now we have the 'small' timber to deal with - the purlins and fascia boards, timber that we can carry by hand!!  What a novelty that will be!!!!  This timber doesn't need to have slots cut into it, more or less just cut to length and put up, so it should be a much quicker process. 

The frame is self supporting

Since the last post the tower we built to hold up the central collar (the metal bracket that holds all the beams as they meet in the middle) has been removed, and (thankfully) the frame is self supporting.  Obviously we expected it to do that, but there is a moment of concern once its done and you remove that support as to what it may do!

The frame is very solid now, like all the pieces are locking into place, and each piece of timber just makes it more solid again. 

The frame is truly beautiful to look at, we just don't get sick of it!  Or taking photos!

We are currently half way through putting up the 'outer' ring of posts and beams.  All the timber is cut up and ready to go.  Its nice to see the stack of timber dwindling, although I think there will be a degree of sadness (and celebration!) when its all done.  Its been a great learning curve, so many little tricks and tips we have learnt (the hard way) so far.  Plenty more to learn though!

sort of like a giant wheel....

With the help of Brad's brother Paul, we have gotten the 10 'inner main beams' up - which was the next step of the house frame.  These beams were about 4.5m long, and pretty heavy to move about.  It took about a day (although it was in 2 half days) to get them all up and it was a bit fiddly fititng them in once a few were up. 

Firstly we built a tower out of the standard house framing pine timber, and got the collar up on top of it (we used our trusty 'lifter').  Then it was just a matter of lifting each beam up with the lifter, and jiggling it till it got into the right spot so that the bolts would feed through the holes in the collar and the bracket.  Again, I say its a credit to Brad that it all fitted together so well.  There is alot of maths involved in building a round house!  And with timber like this you really do want to follow the rule 'measure twice, cut once' or in our case 'calculated twice, cut once'.

the centre of the roof - note that when the photo was taken, the 'tower' was still in place.

 

So the frame is really starting to take shape now, it looks fantastic, so photogenic against the amaing blue skies we are having.  Very proud, and very happy with it!

Since the photos were taken the central tower was partially removed, and the frame is self supporting.  The next stage will involve putting up the 'outer posts' and the connecting beams to the brackets seen in the above photo.