Building a new gun shop for Highlander Arsenal – Part 6

Well its been a while since I did a blog update, but most of my time has been spent on another construction project.  The gun shop project has only been getting dribs and drabs of my time.  But as you will see below progress has been made.

When last we left our intrepid hero only some of the second floor joists were installed and not all of the siding was up.  Well all of the siding has been finished and all of the joist for the second floor are in.  I wound up having to replace two of the joists.  The one that I mentioned in the previous post as well as another that sagged really bad over the intervening weeks.  So I wound up decking the second floor in two sections , one half at a time. The picture below shows the completed first half of the second floor.

 The picture below shows the start of the second half being decked.

If you look closely you can see the new joist, the fourth one from the bottom.

This picture shows the completed second floor decking.  The 2x4s along the front and back edge are the nailers for the roof rafters.

After I got the second floor in, it was time to move back to the first floor.  I wanted to put a partition wall between the main part of the shop and a space for gunsmith work.  So I built a partition wall about 9 feet from the end wall of the building.

This is a half wall for now that will have opening for airflow that will eventually get glassed in.  There is als a space for a doorway in the middle of the wall.  I was planning on waiting a while before putting a door in this opening in the wall but an opportunity arose that I couldn't pass up.  While on a trip to Home Depot I ran across a door the was on sale for $15.97.  It was a special order that was rejected and they were trying to get rid of it.  Though I wasn't the kind of door I had planned on I couldn't pass it up for the price.

So now I really need to start getting a roof on this place before winter and bad weather really set it.  So I am turning my attention back to the second floor.  Since I hate climbing up a ladder to the second floor, it was time to build the stairs.  I found and online stair design site and designed the stair stringers that I needed.  These are made up of 16 foot 2X12 lumber.  Honking pieces of wood at $25 each.  Did not want to mess one up.
Layout, test fitting, cutting, and installing the first stringer took about 5 hours.  The result is in the photo below.

The first stringer is nailed to the wall so it gives me a solid foundation for the stairs.  Yesterday I cut and installed the second stringer and installed it and then cut all of the stair treads. I used a 2x4 and a 2x6 for each stair tread.

The completed stairs are very solid and are 36 inches wide.  They will get banisters later.

Looking up the stairs. The top stair is set flush with the floor so the landing at the top is a little wider than would otherwise be the case.  They used this trick on the one at Lowe's that I patterned this building from. If I hadn't done this you would be very close to the wall when you reached the top of the stairs as the slope of the roof moves the wall in as it goes up.

Here is a picture looking down the stairs from the second floor.


So today I started framing for the roof. I was going to build trusses and erect them but they are to large and heave to handle by myself.  So I am going to stick build at least the bottom half of the roof.

In the picture above you can see a truss that I built.  This pic shows to of the lower roof rafters for the front of the building with a purlin set across the top.  The 2x4s are there only as temporary braces.  I may still try to use the upper half of the truss as it is.  If that works I my stick build the lower half and build and set trusses for the upper half.

 This will be a gambrel type roof, the roof found on barns, like the one below.

A look from the ground

Starting on the back

So this brings us up to date.  I will report on the roof progress over the next little while.  After I get it framed I am going to cover it in steel R-Panel.  That should be interesting!!!

Until next time.