A Place in the Woods

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Windows and doors can be either planned, or, as in our method, treated as an afterthought. Speaking now from experience, I can offer some suggestions. Door frames are made most easily by placing posts on either side of the opening, one of which can be a corner or frame member. The faces needn't be mortised.

Window openings, if they're small, can be cut out from a solid wall, or placed against a post. With large windows, posts should be set on either side of the casing, and a header beam or framing used above to meet the top plate log. Be sure to caulk between the casings and the logs or framework around them.

Pass the Plate

The purpose of the plate logs is to tie the tops of the posts together and provide a bearing beam for the roof rafters. In addition to the ridgepole, these might be the only long logs needed. In a pinch, short logs, attached end to end by lap joints cut to rest on top of the posts, will do as well as full-length timbers; this, in fact, is how we joined the plate logs at the corners, securing them by pounding cut lengths OF 1/2" rebar into 3/8" holes drilled through the joints and into the uprights below.

Using the most elementary mathematics, we figured that the posts could be trimmed 3" higher than the top of the uppermost horizontal course, allowing that gap to be filled by the plate logs when 3" flat notches were cut into their undersides. Given logs of 10" or more in diameter, this left plenty of meat for load support, even where a lap joint was involved. To distribute the considerable weight of the roof evenly over the structure (and to make it easier for our modest crew to lift the longer, unwieldy rafters), we used a ridgepole—a full length timber supported by vertical king posts and a pair of diagonal struts. Temporary bracing used to hold up the kings doubled as an incline when it came time to haul the ridgepole to the top of the posts with our hastily made rope parbuckle.

To fasten the ridge to the king posts, we relied again on the notch and rebar method. I'll admit that we used no special joinery to attach the rafters to the ridgepole or the plates. To get the upper surfaces of all the rafters to line up, we just removed enough wood from their undersides to make the tops more or less even. Temporary spikes held opposite rafter tips in place next to each other at the peak, while we dashed through the junctures with a chain saw to trim those mates at the proper angle. After spiking the butt ends of the rafters to the plates, we simply lined up the matching tips, drilled our sockets and drove home the upper rebar spikes as well. To support the corrugated sheet roofing, we made do with rough-cut 1 X 4 purlins, which cost less and offered more strength than dressed lumber. Since the rafters weren't quite in a perfect plane, we had to trim down the high points and build up the low ones.

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