Custom Home in Ramona, CA

Good morning. It’s Bill Freeman with Freemans Construction. I’m here at a job off of Black Canyon Road. The carpenters are loading the trusses today. After the crane lifts the trusses on top, the guys tip them all up. We call this process “stacking a house.” The crane does most of the lifting. The carpenters hook up the trusses, you can see the cables they use, and then they coordinate with the crane to swing them up and set them on the house in the proper locations. This allows the stackers to spread them out and tip them all up. They nail blocking in between the trusses and add backing everywhere for the drywall. The wall framing is complete. Those structural shear panels on the exterior walls and any other interior walls keeps everything sturdy. They’re marking their layout on the top of the walls so that the trusses are nailed off in the right locations. They’re getting ready to pick up this load of trusses right now.

I’ll take you over and we’ll watch them swing these bundles of trusses into place. They may have to reposition the cables to get the bundle to lay flat. Setting the trusses on top is a balancing act. When you have vaulted trusses like this, picking the right spot to lift from can be difficult so that they lay down correctly.  We will get a new electric meter soon so we can get rid of our generator. Everybody likes to get rid of the generator because they’re awfully noisy.

Smooth Crane Operators

These crane operators are really good. They make the lifting and positioning look simple. Operating cranes isn’t as simple as it looks. I’ve been on jobs where we’ve had new crane operators and it can get very dangerous. Once they finish lifting all the trusses, they can spread them out and tilt them all up in order. They install blocks, short 2x4s, and we call the outside blocks “freeze blocks” and the top blocks at the ridge “ridge blocks.” After all the blocking and drywall backing is nailed in, they will start hanging the fascia board and then installing the plywood roof sheeting. This house should be completely framed by the end of next week. Once the framing is complete, all of our subcontractors will start on the inside plumbing, electrical, HVHC, and low voltage.

I’m going to keep filming so you can see how these trusses sit down. Those guys up top are pretty trusting with this crane operator. They walk around on top of those walls like they’re walking on the ground. Most of those plates are three and a half inches wide, and these guys make walking look really easy. It’s not as easy as it looks, especially when you’re directing traffic and looking around. Right now, they’re trying to swing that bundle into position so the peak will miss that other wall that’s up in the air. We’ll see. It may not fit in there, but I think they’ll be fine to lower it down and let it slope a little.

I get a little side-tracked watching. Stacking houses like this used to be one of my favorites things to do when I was much younger. Running around up there on the roof was a lot of fun. I’ll take some more video tomorrow so you can see how they complete the roof stacking. These guys are quick at stacking trusses. Have a great day and Merry Christmas to you guys. Thanks for watching.

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