Construction Underway

The very next day, I kick off the construction phase of this project. Because I'll be waiting on my ridge beams for two weeks, there really isn't a killing hurry but I would like to get it up, stabilized and anchored to the concrete before a big blow comes through and pushes it all down.

My process is pretty simple. I assemble a section of the wall while laying on the nice flat concrete slab and then make sure it is perfectly square. I then screw a diagonal board across the back which prevents the entire thing from racking. Because I assemble everything with the outside face facing up, the brace has to go on the outside of the building where it will eventually be in the way of the siding. At some point, I will move the diagonal board onto the inside where it will be out of the way. With everything squared up and braced, I then staple some foam to the bottom side of the sill plate to fill that gap so insects and such can't enter. Then I stand it up.

The first one I stood up, I made sure to pound in a stake and screw in a board near ground level that I could use as a brace to keep the entire section from falling over. I plumbed up the wall and screwed the upper end of the brace in place. Then it was just rinse and repeat for the next two sections of wall. Below you can see the doorway for the storage section of the building and some more temporary bracing. I hope to get the rest of the walls installed in the next two days, get everything trued up and then permanently fasten things down to the slab where it can't go anywhere. Just in case anyone notices and calls it out, the cripples above the doorway header have been cut but I hadn't put them in place before this picture was taken. For those that don't know what a cripple is, at least in construction parlance, it is a short board that fills the gap between the top plate and the header to transfer any loads to the header which is the structural element for the doorway area.