FRUGAL

HAPPY
A blog about attempting a low-cost, low-impact, joyful lifestyle in
suburbia.

POSTS ABOUT PRESS ARCHIVE C O N TA C T

Vaulting the Ceiling, Part II — Construction

JULY 14, 2018 BY CHRIS

Note: This post describes the construction phase of vaulting our

living room ceiling. However, half the work happened before any
hammer was swung — designing, planning, and obtaining permits
was an arduous and convoluted process in its own right. To read
about it, check out Part I.
Since we finally got our permit, demolition could begin (see our blog
post on that here). The first step in vaulting the ceiling was to remove
the existing ceiling's drywall and structural members. Removing the
drywall was fairly straightforward, but extremely messy. I had already
sent off a sample of the popcorn ceiling to be checked for asbestos,
and it came back negative.

After the several hundred pounds of ceiling drywall was hauled

away, the ceiling joists were exposed and we could begin removing
them. But I wanted to sequence the removal of the structural
members in order to maintain integrity during the construction
process.
 Demolition not quite finished, but I decided to start on the vaulted ceiling anyway. In
retrospect I should have just gone down to the studs all 'round for the sake of
simplicity.

I decided to hire professional help for this next stage of the project.
Changing the roof structure of the house is something that
absolutely needed to be done correctly; the implications of screwing
this part up would be both expensive and potentially dangerous. It
was the first change I would make to the house (meaning I was
inexperienced and intimidated), and it was a big one. I needed some
hand holding. I hired local contractors Michael and Christian to help
me (or, more accurately, to let me help them) remove the existing
roof structure and install the new one. As with the engineer, I needed
to find a professional contractor who was okay working with an
amateur (who also happened to be the client). 

My role as both newbie construction grunt and client would

inevitably make for some awkward moments. I came to appreciate
Michael's and Christian's understanding, willingness to teach,
dogged persistence, and good humor.

The first task at hand would be to pour the footings for the new
posts. This would entail going down into the crawl space and
digging holes where the new footings would be poured. It proved to
be a herculean task.

The clearance in the crawl

space between the bottom of
the floor joists (spaced 16
inches-on-center) and the
ground is about 18 inches.
Supporting these floor joists
every 6 feet are 4x6 girders,
and the clearance under these
girders is about 12 or so inches,
depending on the ground in
 that area — barely enough
Michael's foot visible from the crawl space
hatch. He is quite alive, but after countless
room for a fit adult male to
hours of jack-hammering he may be squeeze through. These girders
wishing that were not the case.
are supported every six feet by
short 4x4 posts that rest upon
pyramidal concrete footings. Some of these footings were on small
concrete slabs that were poured into the crawl space ground.

In order to make enough room to build the wooden form work to

create the four new 18x18x18 footings, some of these footings had to
be moved, and the small (???) concrete slabs below them broken up
into chunks using rotary drills and eventually a 35-lb demolition
hammer. A 35-lb demolition hammer...the kind of thing that's
exhausting and awkward and unpleasant to use above ground for
any amount of time. Now, imagine using that thing to break up
concrete in an 18-inch-high crawl space for EIGHT HOURS. That's
what Christian and Michael did, with a little bit of help from me.
Eventually we got the old concrete removed, the holes for the new
footings excavated, and the form work built.
 Few things invoke a sense of urgency quite like a trailer full of wet concrete sitting in
your garage.

Michael picked up a trailer full of concrete and we were on our way.

We took turns filling up 5-gallon buckets with wet concrete, hefting
them into the house, and pouring them through the holes in the floor
and into the forms below. This is probably self-evident, but it's worth
saying explicitly — concrete is heavy. A full 5-gallon bucket of
concrete weighs about 100 pounds, and sometimes we were
carrying two at a time. 

At long last we got the forms filled and the post brackets placed in
the curing concrete. We had enough concrete to fill the forms, but it
turns out we had too much. Even though we were exhausted, we
had to do something with all the extra concrete that was just sitting
in the rented trailer, slowly hardening. We put down a big sacrificial
sheet of cardboard and poured and scraped every last bit of grey
goop into a great heaving blob upon the garage floor. We washed
out the rental trailer and left the mass to cure and be broken up and
discarded later. It was one hell of a day.
The next day they came back and we took off the forms to reveal the
footings. They were intact and massive. Mercifully the footings were
now done and we could resume our work above ground. We
removed the existing ceiling joists in preparation for installing the
ridge beam.
 Ceiling joists removed, exposing the roof structure.

We installed the secondary posts and beams to support the ridge

beam.

This beam supports the center post.

 This beam over the hallway supports the south end post.

Once the three support posts were in place we installed temporary

supports to allow us to maneuver the giant ridge beam into its
eventual permanent home.

And now, the ridge beam itself. The three of us were able to lift the
ridge beam up [Wen's note: "THIS IS AMAZING"] onto a platform we
built. The 20' ridge beam weighed 300 lbs or so. I thought we were
going to lift it up on to the platform mechanically with some kind of
winch, but no winch ever materialized. Christian seemed to think the
three of us could just lift it up the 8 feet onto the platform. I was
skeptical. But somehow we did it. Personally, if I were to do this
again, I'd use a mechanical pulley of some kind.
 The three of us hefting the new ridge beam into place.

The ridge beam is made up of thin sheets of wood all glued together,
like a giant, thick piece of plywood. This type of manufactured wood
product — called laminated veneer lumber (LVL) — is very strong and
dimensionally stable, and making it doesn't require cutting down
huge old trees. LVL and another engineered wood product — cross-
laminated timber (CLT) — are even beginning to be used in mid rise
buildings instead of steel in some places. Steel production is
extremely energy intensive and creates a huge amount of carbon
dioxide pollution, even when it's recycled.

Eventually we got the new ridge beam into its final position.
 We installed temporary supports to hold the ridge beam in place while we prepared
the permanent supports.

Once the new ridge beam was in place, we could begin installing the
new 2x12 rafters.

The wood for the new 2x12 rafters just barely fit in the garage.

These rafters were almost as long as the ridge beam itself, and they
would all need to be cut one by one and fit into place.
 Christian notched the end of each new rafter to fit snugly against both the old ridge
board and the new ridge beam.

Each new rafter had to be meticulously — and laboriously — slid into its new home
next to the existing rafter.

I learned that it is difficult to install new rafters into an existing roof.

There is very little clearance to get the new member into place. We
had to knock out all of the blocking between the existing rafters in
order to have enough space to insert the new 2x12s — and even
then it was difficult. The new rafters were long and heavy and not
always straight. It was definitely a strong two-person job, and some
kind of platform or scaffolding is a must.

The improvised workaround for the complicated wall assembly required a tenuous two-inch
gap between the bearing wall and the lower face of the rafter end.

The "birdsmouth" cut that rested on the bearing wall was

complicated by my, well, complicated design for the wall assembly.
The top half of the rafter would rest on the bearing wall, but the
bottom half would be carried by a joist hanger attached to a ledger
board attached to the bearing wall. But(!) the ledger board couldn't
go on until the wall was finished being insulated and seismic retrofit
with interior plywood. So...in the interim the new rafter would be
supported only by the top half resting on the bearing wall. This was
not ideal since only half the rafter is supported (effectively it's
another 2x6 rafter) and it makes them prone to splitting at the notch.
But it was the best solution I could come up with at the time, and
fortunately it eventually worked out as planned, albeit with a
nervous-making, nail-biting interim. This is the kind of detailed, 4th-
dimensional task sequencing that's hard to anticipate in the abstract
beforehand in the design and planning stages, especially when
you're doing something unconventional and/or are inexperienced
like me.

Gradually, the new vaulted ceiling structure began to take shape.

 Pneumatic palm nailers helped us get the requisite nails into the brackets in tight
quarters. Top half of this photo: relative order. The bottom: utter chaos.

Eventually we got all the brackets installed and the new vaulted roof
structure was complete! I'm very glad that I had Christian and
Michael to guide me through the process.

Vaulting the ceiling was a significant undertaking, but it has

completely transformed the space, as I hoped it would. What used to
feel dark and cloistered is now airy and open. The change has been
so significant, it's hard to believe it's the same house. It's been a lot
of work, but I'm glad we made the choice to vault the ceiling. Seeing
the building model I constructed become reality was incredible; this
whole process was a reminder of how profoundly intentional design
can influence our experience of a space. Yay for architecture!

READ MORE:

• Vaulting the Ceiling, Part I — Plans and Permits

 • Demolition Begins

• How We Turned Our House into a Giant Foam Box, Part II —

Ceiling Insulation

 HOME RENOVATION, DIY, ARCHITECTURE

 11 LIKES  SHARE

 Newer Older 

Comments (6) Newest First

Preview POST COMMENT…

Chancie Joines 3 years ago · 0 Likes

My mom and I are under contract to purchase a home. We

close on Nov 16th. We want to vault the ceiling, with the help
of my dad (Hes done construction work in the past), and I've
been trying to find articles to help me understand what I'm
about to do. Yours has been the most helpful!!! I'm also going
to check out the articles you referenced in your other post.
Yay for finding your blog!!

Chris 3 years ago · 0 Likes

Hi Chancie. It's very gratifying to hear that you've found

our post(s) useful. Thank you for letting us know. Best
of luck with your new home and your project.

Dustin 4 years ago · 0 Likes

Can I ask what a rough cost for this was?

Chris 4 years ago · 0 Likes

Hi Dustin. Sure. Rough cost for vaulting the ceiling was

around $15k, including about $5k for outsourced labor.

michael lopez 5 years ago · 0 Likes

Hey,

Can you send photos of the final product that aren't a gif? I
can't really see the beauty of the final product. Also, how did
you end up insulating the vaulted area? Wonderful work! :)

Chris 5 years ago · 0 Likes

Hi Michael. Thanks for reading. Here is a link to

another post about insulating the vaulted ceiling:
http://www.frugalhappy.org/blog/2018/3/11/insulation-
ceiling
Hopefully that post will also give a better sense of the
final structure of the vaulted ceiling. If there's some
particular part you want to see that's not shown, let me
know and I'll see if we have a photo of it.