You may recall we built a small hipped green oak frame a few weeks ago and erected it in the yard as a “dry run” prior to shipping it to site near Swansea.
Not something we normally do, but in this case, cutting and fitting all the compound angles of the jack rafters, the bird’s mouth joints and the rafter end cuts in the comfort of the workshop, would save plenty of time on site, and ensure that we could install the whole oak frame in one day (hopefully!)
So we loaded up early morning and trundled down to South Wales in time for a 9am start. All was going swimmingly until the telehandler we were using to raise the frame, decided it only wanted to go backwards, and couldn’t be coaxed into any forward motion for love nor money. By the time a mechanic had been called for and had diagnosed and fixed the issue, we were battling the clock and our leisurely day on site had turned into a stressful sprint. Jake and I ran about in full Benny Hill mode but without the backing music, and were able (just) to get things back on schedule.
That time spent in the workshop was definitely time well spent.
Once we had finished the raising, we spent a few minutes looking over the finished internal roof frame we had installed a couple of years previously for the same client.
We look forward to being invited to their first barbecue!