unfamiliar technique

[Kevin Jenness]

A new house is being built across the road from me by one guy with occasional weekend help from the homeowner. Today when I went out to get the mail the builder was setting trusses with a rented telehandler- by himself. He had one up and braced and was trying to place the second one, eyeballing it from the cab then climbing a ladder to the second floor deck and back down for fine tuning the position. I watched him for a few minutes then came inside. A half hour later the second truss was set and he was lifting the third when he dropped it off the forks from ten feet up. I can hear him driving nails now so I guess he got that one- only 20 or so to go.

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe he had a no show helper.

You might have been able to make some extra money as a helper for the day.

jtk

[Kevin Jenness]

If I wasn't busy I would have offered. He quit for the day after three- I'll see what happens tomorrow.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Many years ago, a prior owner had gotten drunk and ran into a post and beam Carriage house, knocking it off the foundation. It sat that way for a couple years till I bought the place. I had a crew of helpers scheduled to help me jack it up and put it up on rollers to then tow it back into place and set it down. The helpers never showed. So I jacked the thing up carefully on blocks and then mounted a cable to the thing and tried to tow it with the tractor. Wouldn't budge. So I jacked it up some more and as I was putting one of the rollers, (a piece of telephone pole about 12 feet long) I leaned all my weight on it and the carriage house lifted about 1/2 inch. So I leaned on it and pushed and got the carriage house to move about two inches back toward the place it was supposed to be. So I blocked everything again. and moved it another 2 inches. Took me a total of three hours of blocking and jacking each time just to move it two inches at a time. But I got it back up on the foundation where it belonged. Knew a guy that built a log cabin by himself. He rolled each log up into place by himself with a come along. A long process for each 20 ft log. Sometimes you have no choice.

[Jim Koepke]

Many years ago, a prior owner had gotten drunk and ran into a post and beam Carriage house, knocking it off the foundation. It sat that way for a couple years till I bought the place. I had a crew of helpers scheduled to help me jack it up and put it up on rollers to then tow it back into place and set it down. The helpers never showed. So I jacked the thing up carefully on blocks and then mounted a cable to the thing and tried to tow it with the tractor. Wouldn't budge. So I jacked it up some more and as I was putting one of the rollers, (a piece of telephone pole about 12 feet long) I leaned all my weight on it and the carriage house lifted about 1/2 inch. So I leaned on it and pushed and got the carriage house to move about two inches back toward the place it was supposed to be. So I blocked everything again. and moved it another 2 inches. Took me a total of three hours of blocking and jacking each time just to move it two inches at a time. But I got it back up on the foundation where it belonged. Knew a guy that built a log cabin by himself. He rolled each log up into place by himself with a come along. A long process for each 20 ft log. Sometimes you have no choice.

Interesting tale, it truly proves "one person can make a difference."

jtk

[Pat Barry]

Interesting tale, it truly proves "one person can make a difference."

jtk

Or as ancient Archimedes noted to have said "give me a long enough lever and I could move the world".

[Kevin Jenness]

The fellow seems intent on working alone. Took him nearly three full days to set 25 trusses on a building about 28' x 32'. For a single worker it surely makes sense to use the telehandler, but an extra pair of hands would make things go much faster. Maybe with the unemployment rate at 2.1% no-one worth having is available, or maybe he is just a stubborn and solitary cuss like myself. I will chat him up one of these days.