Capping the Ridge

Welcome back to the build. Today we’re doing the ridge cap. One of those last little details that need to get finished before the building is dried in completely. We have Jack back here helping us today, and we’re going to get this ridge cap installed as quickly as possible. And that’s probably going to be about it for today!

Since it’s kind of hard to get to, we’re going to use the bucket of the telehandler as an anchor point for some ladders, and then we’ll climb up onto that top ridge or top roof section. Then we can lay the ridge in and repeat that process about eight times.

That ridge cap went a lot faster than we were thinking, which is good. We got done before lunch, so the rest of the day Donavan and I are going to tie some loose ends. 

We are starting off with the approach to the barn, ramping it up to the height of the floor. I got some questions about what this road base is, and it’s a mixture of rock, sand, ground concrete, and ground asphalt. So it’s got all the, the big chunks and the fines mixed in with sand and other small bits of stuff. It compacts really, really nicely, and i’s been working really well for our little road up to the barn.

Next up, we are working on some of the roof trim. Creates a nice, clean look. It goes pretty quickly now that we’ve done a few. But after this one, we are going to call it a day, and continue working on the other side next Tuesday.

Because this is a shorter update, I figured I’d answer questions about the concrete pour. First of all, I’d like to say thank you for all of the positivity and comments on the concrete pour video. We’re to the point where things are starting to come together and finalize, which I’m feeling really good about. So thank you all for being here with me and bringing that positivity, 

First question: the move. I think a couple people were confused by that word. I use that term loosely: I’m moving in, but I’m not really setting up. I am utilizing the space as storage so I can get out of my warehouse space. So I’m moving all my stuff here, and it’s all staying palletized. As needed for continued work on the building, I will remove the items from the building, put it in the field for the day, and then bring the stuff back in when the work is done.

Next, I had a few people asking why I didn’t pour an apron out here. That is one of the many things that I have pushed off into the future for budgetary reasons. Pretty much anything I can push off into the future without really impacting the building or compromising the future of the building, I have done. The biggest thing that falls in that category is the porch lean-to. I completely pulled it out of the project to offset that cost into the future. Same thing with the apron. It will also give some time to figure out how big of an apron I want out here.

A few people asked about the in-floor heat and being able to bolt things down to the floor. There’s two strategies that I can go with for that. I do have the aerial overhead view of the entire floor with the foam and the PEX sitting on top of it. So I can use the foam size as a grid to identify the location of all the pipes anywhere. The other thing is that I likely won’t be using that long of bolts. If you use a three or four inch long bolt into the floor, I’m not going to hit a PEX line with one of those. That’s the advantage of having that thicker floor: I still have a lot of meat there to bolt things to without worrying about that PEX line. 

That is going to do it for this one. Thank you as always for joining. I greatly appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments on the barn, please feel free to leave me a comment. As always, I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. And until next time, happy woodworking.