| Roof System |
| The cabin roof system is built. |
From "Trade School"
episode DTRS-306 |
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In this segment, apprentice Matt Rohrer finishes handcrafting the cabin by creating the roof structure. Following that, he disassembles the entire cabin for transport to the new home site.
Safety Note: Always wear safety glasses and ear protection when working with power tools.1. After building up the cabin walls, and having notched and set several logs to form the floor joists for the second floor, Matt finishes out the loft by notching and stacking logs atop the loft floor to form partitions and small dormers (figure A). 2. Matt proceeds to form the roof system. This mainly consists of six horizontal support logs called purlins, and one topmost ridge beam. He begins by cutting a flat face along these big logs with the portable sawmill (figure B). When the purlins are permanently set, these flat faces align with the pitch of the roof to accept the roof decking.
3. With the first two purlins notched and set atop the cabin walls, Matt attaches the cabin's gable ends. Unlike any of the previous logs, these gable logs are not notched. Instead, Matt stacks up a series of shorter logs and keeps them together with nailed-on wood braces (figure C).4. Matt guides the second pair of notched purlins atop the gables. With the flat face of each purlin in line with the roof pitch, he nails on a straight board, which serves as a guide as he cuts the gable logs to the same pitch (figure D). 5. To finish crafting the cabin, Matt cuts stout log pillars that serve to support the remaining two purlins and the top ridge beam. These are later anchored onto the loft floor. He scribes and cuts square notches into the purlins to fit precisely on top of these pillars. 6. The cabin is disassembled log-by-log, and then strategically loaded onto a semi-trailer (figure E). To facilitate reassembly at the home site, each log is labeled by course and corner.
In the next segment, Matt and Ron travel with the logs to the home site where they will permanently reassemble the cabin.
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