Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
points for balance. Once the rig is in place, it's a good
idea to support each end of the bumper with a block,
to take the weight off the springs and spindles. I've
since replaced this with a 1951 Dodge Power Wagon
with winch, and braced two-inch steel pipe for the
gin poles.
On very tall houses, we sometimes found my gin
poles weren't tall enough. That happened on our Vir-
ginia house, and I was resigned to cutting and weld-
ing in extensions. Then, a woman who worked for us
suggested driving the Land Rover up onto my flatbed
truck to make it taller. It took 20 minutes, and it
worked.
At a house-raising, four men with ropes can haul
each log up from the top while others push from
below. Or you can use skid poles with the ropes.
I copied Peter Gott's hand lift a few years ago, and
it works well on relatively small logs, say up to 20 feet
and maybe 12-inch faces. It's oak, cut 1∏ inches thick
and braced often to keep the weight down. I lay a sub-
floor to use the lift so it can be moved around from
wall to wall. Peter uses big casters on his, which is
heavier with more lifting capacity. I've lifted 400
pounds with mine, with the lightweight boat trailer
winch on it. This device lets you lift logs from the
inside to each wall. Often a site won't give you access
to all four walls on the outside, so this is an advantage.
If you have room to maneuver and the money for
it, you may hire a knuckle boom. These are usually
mounted on 10-wheel trucks and have a reach of up to
30 feet or so. They're logging machinery, and a good
operator can take down a house with one in a hurry.
He can set it up quickly, too, but only if everything is
prenotched and ready. Fitting as you go is too slow to
make a knuckle boom efficient.
Check your log wall for vertical alignment as you go.
Particularly around windows and doors, you'll have to
Cutting a groove for the chinking wire mesh that will hold the masonry
mortar. Two grooves are cut on the underside of the log (above left)
with a chain saw, which greatly speeds up the chinking process, as
well as making the chinking look straighter and neater.
1 ⁄/™"
⁄/™"
Installing the wire mesh for mortar chinking is simplified by cutting
these grooves with a chain saw on the underside of each log. Log
surfaces sometimes need to be prepared for the chinking process.
The wire must slope outward so the finished chinking will shed water.
