Of Saws and Springs

The truck with our rubber roof membrane arrived before 10am, and easily used its crane to life the three sections of roof onto the plywood. Phil had opted for three 10' sections, rather than a single 30' section or two 15' sections. If he had a team of reliable people, the 30' section would have been very quick, requiring no joints. But because he works just by himself, he needs any labor saving option he can figure out, and that is a good one.

Then he headed to town to either buy a new saw or a new spring. All the saws were too heavy, but he found a spring. Happily, he spent forty cents instead of almost $200, so I thought that was a good exchange.

Back home, he was working on the saw when the spring sproinged away. In that horrifying instant, as it shot into the great unknown, Phil thought, "It was forty cents! I could have bought two! I could have bought ten!"

Incredibly, he found the spring. A part of the plywood floor was moved aside, so I don't think the search was easy or swift, but it was effective. He finished fixing the saw, and cut the ends off the 24 or so joists just perfectly.

Then he had to place the rimboard. Gravity was working against him. He had 12' sections of engineered wood sitting up on the cantilevered joists, and he somehow had to suspend the wood in the air on the ends of the joists and screw the wood into the joists. He had to do it from above (since the ladder would not have been a safe option on the uneven ground), while he balanced on the joists themselves. He needed to prevent the wood from falling, and prevent himself from being pulled down by the weight of the wood.

This was quite a puzzle. None of us hung out beneath his work space.

In the end, he screwed temporary pieces of 2x4s into the bottom of some of the joists, giving a little lip to rest the wood on. He put a board over the joists so he had a place to sit carefully. And then he worked quickly. No mishaps!

That finished, he set down some plywood cut to length (he didn't have quite enough pieces up on the roof to finish). Those roughly in place, he was done for the day. Because, as you can probably guess, the rains began then.