Building the Gable Walls

With the trusses in place I could now set about building up the gable end walls. The trusses would act as a guide so that I build the gable evenly and at the right angle.

It was a laborious job. Because I only had the one scaffold tower rather than full scaffolding it involved a lot of moving it about. Having to cut angles on both the inner blocks and the bricks meant a lot of faffing about. I used a long straight edge laid against the trusses to ensure my blocks and bricks were in line.

This seemed to take ages. I began to get fed up with going up and down the scaffold, but knew it was just a case of ploughing on!

As I built up the gable walls I fitted gable restraint straps over the blockwork and fixed them to the first three trusses. I think I fitted four at wall plate height, two about half way up the rafters and one at the top. They should be at a maximum of 2M centres.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of these, as my mind was more on just getting the bloody gables built, but this diagram illustrates.

(Definitely fed up with climbing scaffold now)

Working alone, I was mortar mixer, hod carrier and brick layer. I wish I had counted how many times I went up and down the damn scaffold tower (a lot).

I had a couple of arches to build as I went, so that meant more brick cutting and faffing. I felt as though I made slow progress, but with every step forward it looked more like a house and I needed fewer tarpaulins to keep the rain out.

Unfortunately, many scaffold climbing days still lay ahead.

Next I would start to cut the new roof into the old.