Finally done with the jack studs, our house has moved onto doing the bearers. Other house is done with this and has braced as well, so they all came over to lend a hand. Good team work - and its good to know that we got a bit more done today than if we had to go it alone.
The laminating process is pretty full on, requiring accurate calculations to ascertain where the nails needed to go in order to make the bearers as strong as they can be at the joins.
The measurements are dictated by the house plan, and nail placement is based on the thickness of the wood used for the bearers (as ours are a thickness of 45mm, this is multiplied by 6 giving us 270mm which is what the intervals of nails go at). Nails have to be angled in to discourage the nails from popping out due to vibrations/movement of the house.
It is really important that everything is flush, so this edge is selected and then the edge is always lined up with this side (whilst the other may be out).
At the joins these also need to be butted up straight. Learnt a great way to achieve this from Rich, which was to use the combination square to measure off from the already laminating timber and cutting off from there - that way its square to that piece and fits in bang on.
It's important that both pieces of wood are nailed close together so that it has its ultimate strength as the whole house will be sitting on it and there is no room for weaknesses.
Laminating is done as no timber can be created that runs the length of the house, and this is the way of achieving this affect. We didn't quite get all the bearers done by end of day, but thankfully it won't take too much when we return from break to finish up.
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