Pony Walls and Ridge Beam

Easter weekend turned into a bit of a full and busy time. I had four days and I had to move the trailer out of the shed where It has been sitting because the roof was too low for the next steps. The weekend turned out to be mostly cold and blustery, which wasn't much fun. However, it didn't rain much, and Sunday actually included some sunshine and a touch of warmth - a good Easter gift.

The roof over the sleeping loft has a different slope than the roof over the rest of the building. It's a much shallower slope which is intended to give more head room and living space in this low-ceilinged part of the house. In order to do this, two short pony walls had to be put in place to hold the wall ends of the rafters up higher. Each wall also has two windows in it for light, ventilation, and fire escape should this ever prove necessary.

Here is one of the walls with the pieces cut and set out, ready to nail together.

Here are the two walls, well nailed and ready to go.

Since I'm using rafters and not trusses, I needed a ridge beam that would run the length of the building, plus extending a few inches at each end. The beam needs to be strong in a vertical direction, but doesn't require a great deal of horizontal strength. I made my beam by cutting 5 1/2 inch strips from a sheet of 5/8 inch fir plywood. I then laminated two layers of the strips together, overlapping all of the joints. The layers were glued together with PL 400 glue and thoroughly screwed (in a good way)   :-) with 1 inch wood screws. This picture shows the bottom layer with the glue applied and the first bit of second layer set on top. The two pieces of OSB are there to act as straight edges to help keep the beam straight while we put it together.

Here's the trailer, moved out of its shed.