Raising shed walls/trusses

Building a 12x16 shed. Need to raise the walls but too heavy to safely lift and set in place on my own. Other than begging the neighbours, do you have any recommendations or equipment suggestions to do this on my own?

Reply to
keyridge
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When I built my 12x20 shed, used tilt up construction as you are suggesting.

A BBQ and a couple of cases of beer to encourage the neighbor's participation beats the hell out of a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

It is also a lot less expensive than renting the necessary equipment.

Back in the old days, people called it a barn raising, at least where i lived.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Walls this size should be handled with no problems by two guys. I mean, I don't have a huge bank of buddies that I could enlist in such an enterprise, but even I could convince at least ONE to stop by if there was a beer or 5 and a burger waiting on the other side.

todd

Reply to
Todd Fatheree

John Carroll, Working Alone: Tips and Techniques for Solo Building (Taunton, 2001), p. 43 ff has three suggestions. Any of them will work fine.

  1. Hire a crew to stop by on their way home (you can have it securely braced in 15 min. or less)

  1. Build the walls in manageable sections.

  2. Use wall jacks

Good luck, H

Reply to
hylourgos

I think house framers use their Craftsman levels as levers to raise framed walls. We used to have barrels of them that carpenters had returned for new ones under the Craftsman lifetime warranty at the Sears store in Arizona that I retired from. They were all pretty well bent from something other than checking level. Just an idea.........

Tom.

Reply to
Tom

On 7/5/2005 11:05 PM keyridge mumbled something about the following:

I built my 16x24 shed using tilt-up wall construction, took 3 of us to raise the walls (no siding, just bare framing) and set into place. All it took was a couple 6 packs and a BBQ to get a couple of friends over to help.

Reply to
Odinn

Yes and it can be done by one person - I've done it several times. See ASCII art below.

Temporarily secure 3 sections of 2x4 (about 12" long) to the outside of the footer, one near each end, one near the center. These "Keepers" for lack of a better term will keep the wall from sliding off the base while you're raising it. They also align the wall with the outside edge of the flooring.

Before raising the wall, temporarily secure another 12" long chunk of 2x4 scrap to the floor about 5' out from the edge and centered on the wall. This stop will be used to hold an 8' long 2x4 brace that you secure to the center stud of the wall once it is raised. With the footer of the wall placed against the keepers, raise the wall, grab the brace, jam it against the stop, hold the wall vertical and secure the brace to the wall. That keeps it from falling back to the floor but keep hold of it and drive a screw thru each of the keepers into a wall stud to keep the wall from falling the other way. Be sure to secure the brace to the floor with a long screw too.

Now, with the wall fairly secure, you can add other bracing to hold that wall. Don't add any bracing on the end of the wall that is adjacent to the next wall you'll be raising. When you raise the next wall, you do the same but now it's easier since you have one wall to use as a tie-in to help hold the 2nd wall. With 2 walls up and temporarily secure, go ahead and readjust the bracing as needed to get the walls vertical.

When raising the walls, your hands are pretty full and there's no way you can check vertical with a level - so eyeball it during the raising and tweak it later. Obviously you have to do some prep work and have the brace (8' or longer 2x4) at a point where you can bend down and grab it while you're holding the wall, have your drill and screws handy etc.

Now - to address your concern about lifting the wall. Build the walls on the floor, laid out in the direction they are to be raised. The footer of the wall you're building will be parallel to the edge it will be secured to. The whole wall is made on the floor and all you have to do is raise it up. You're not having to carry the wall anyplace.

Do the short wall first (12'), then the adjacent 16' long wall, then the other 12' and 16' walls. Once you get started, use the keepers and the bracing and you'll see it's harder to describe how to do it than doing it.

Bob S.

Wall |---| | | | |\ | |\ \ | | \ \ | | \ \ | | \ \ | | \ \ | | \ \

Reply to
BobS

Build the walls in sections you can lift yourself.

My wife and I built a 24'x28' garage and a 40'x40' house by ourselves. I would build the walls in 8' sections, and she would help me tilt them up each evening. She would hold the section in place while I lined it up with the existing walls, plumbed it up, and screwed on a diagonal brace. We did a few 12' sections too, but the eight footers were a lot more manageable for the two of us.

You may use a few more studs than building the walls in a single section, but it's not a huge difference.

If you absolutely have to work alone, you could raise 4' sections on your own (or maybe 8' sections if you're up to it). Or, build the frame first, and apply the sheathing once it is in place. I had to do this for the front wall of our garage, and screwed blocks of wood to the top edge of the plywood. I could then "hang" the sheet on the wall and it supported itself while I nailed it in place.

If you take your time and think things through, you'll be amazed what you can accomplish by yourself. Use bar clamps to hold or pull things together. Screw on blocks of wood for guides or additional supports.

Anthony

Reply to
HerHusband

Thanks for all your comments. Very helpful!

Reply to
keyridge

If you can, find a book called "Working Alone" by John Carrol. It has lots of tips for this and similar tasks usually done by 2 or more people.

Reply to
Lawrence Wasserman

Seems like whenever I have to lift something extremely heavy, I would rather 'finess' the item than have the help of others. Even moving heavy machinery, if your helpers are not experienced somebody will get hurt.

I am no He-man, but raising walls up to 40-50 ft length, 10 ft. high is no issue for a single individual.

Follow all of the bracing suggestions by poster "BobS", posted above mine. ADDITIONALLY, if you are building the wall on a wooden floor, simply align the wall before the lift so that when vertical, it will be in its final position. BUT FIRST, toe nail your bottom plate, at a 45° angle to the subfloor. Toe nail in a direction such that, when you lift, the nails will bend right at the final location of your inside face-of-wall line. When finished, either leave or remove nails. Keeps wall from sliding whil lifting. You can adjust final location of wall with a 2 lb. hammer.

To raise a long wall by yourself, simply nail a short (1-2 ft. long) 2z4 along side you studding near the top plate. Do this about every 4 to 8 feet on center. Go to one end of the wall and lift about 6 inches to a foot by whatever means (muscles, lever etc.) available. As you lift 6" to a foot, let this short 2x4 swing down to the floor and become a 'stand' to hold up the section you just raised. Go down along the wall near your next brace and raise that section an equal amount. Let the brace swing under to become a 'stand'. Repeat down the full length of the wall.

Now go back to the beginning and nail on swinging braces that are about 2 feet long, repeat along full length of wall, repeat your lifts, etc. As an expedient, I usually use a three foot piece of scrap 2x4 and nail it at the one foot point. On my first lift I rotate it using the one foot leg. On my second lift I flip it so I now have a 2 foot leg. etc.

After you have the wall up about 45° it becomes lighter and lighter. While I have never 'lost' a wall that I was raising, I make sure to stand in the window openings while I am lifting in case it comes crashing down. THE CHANCES OF THE ABOVE METHOD HURTING YOU IS MUCH LESS THAN PLYING FRIENDS WITH BEER.

I'm getting to be an old fart now and avoid the foolish lifting I used to do when younger. I can't recount how many times I was moving something with levers, rollers, rails, planks, etc., when one of my buddies would suggest "why don't we simply pick up each end" ?. Yeah, back then, we could each pick up about 300 lbs., and I can still do half of that today, but, I have time and would rather move things by myself inch, by inch. Takes longer, but much safer.

Ivan Vegvary

Reply to
Ivan Vegvary

Only thing that hasn't already been mentioned is the technique I use for lifting trusses. If you've got a comealong, hook it to a branch in a nearby tree, and use that if the wall is too heavy to lift on your own. If you don't have one, those nylon straps with the ratcheting handles that you use to hold down stuff on a trailer work pretty well also.

Of course, you need to have a tree or something taller than the wall nearby, but if you do, it works great. Get the wall up until it is almost (but not quite) vertical, and then put a brace on it. A little push should get it resting on the brace, and you're off to the races. For the trusses, hook the strap around the top of the wall on the far end of the building, and you can pull all of them up at once, then move them into place one at a time.

Reply to
Prometheus

Last night on Daily Planet I saw this guy lifting huge concrete blocks (19,000lbs+) by himself. It took awhile, but he teetered it back and forth, using sticks to lever it higher and higher. He could also spin them easily just by tipping them into a small stone. He's building his own backyard Stonehenge. Patience can be a very effective tool. Plus, think of the bragging rights when it's all done!

- Owen -

Reply to
Owen Lawrence

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