Work platform

It's almost time to put up the roof framing. The rafter units are not too heavy to carry, but they're not light, either. And they're long (16'). And we have to put them on top of an 8' wall, which is a long way to reach.

We passed one up today to see how it felt.

I carried it from the storage area to the building, and passed it through a gap in the wall to Julie. Her job was to set one rafter tail on one wall, slide it up, then hook the other rafter tail on the other wall, then center it. She couldn't reach high enough, so I had to run around the building, come in through the door, and help her get it in to place. Too much running back and forth to get all rafter units up like that, and it was hard work. How to make it easier?

• Get a couple helpers for 1/2 an hour.
• Carry the rafter units to the building, as far as I can get them. Then run around, and together we drag them in & hoist them up.
• Rent scaffolding.
• Build scaffolding.

A combination of the above may be the best choice. I decided to build a raised work platform, as a start.

I mostly improvised. The one cool thing I did was to create 4 short, temporary jack studs to attach to existing studs. The building is 10' across, so a pair of extra 2x4 10' sticks rest on these jack studs. 

There are few more sticks here and there to finish the structure. The building, which we've worked hard to make strong and stable, helps the platform be strong and stable, too.

A sheet of plywood rests on top as a nice, large surface to stand on. It's about 3' up, mostly because I had some 3' cut-offs lying around already. Maybe 4' would have been better - 1/2 the height of the walls? Whatever, it works.

Most of the lumber is used full-length.  The plywood plywood deck is only 6' long, but I didn't cut it - it was like that already. Screws hold things together, making it easy to take apart, but the screws carry minimal load  - loads mostly go through wood resting on wood.