And your cheap-adze saw horses didn't break.

 

Got to love flag lots with power lines !

 

Is that a newer neighborhood?

 

FramerPDX that looks fun.

 

This is not a new Nieghbor hood they tore down one old big house

 

Oh I see. All the newer hoods from early 80s on have underground utilitys. It nice to not have the wires.

 

That last picture of the ridges lining up like that :thumbsup: Just a dream with trusses up our way.

It's an optical illusion. By average standards they weren't awful, but they weren't perfect. If you drew a plumb line from the peak of the top chord, it was anywhere from 1/4"-7/8" off center from the ceiling peak (bottom chord.) We set the top chord peak plumb to a center line popped on the slab. Then truss company came out, assessed the situation and sent out a bunch of 2x6's. Had to string line it all and scab every single one to get it perfect. One day I'll get a truss package where everything is right on the money, and I won't know what to do with myself.

 

A timber frame job we did last year

 

Nice looking timber frame there.

 

A timber frame job we did last year

Looks really good there Derry. I noticed you're from Cork. I have a good friend here in Florida that grew up there.

 

We are still struggling to get this one wrapped up. Another one next door after we get this done.

 

talk about "green framing"

 

We are still struggling to get this one wrapped up. Another one next door after we get this done.

More importantly how's the lull? Making you money?

 

She is performing nicely. I am a bit of a "bull in a china closet" however, but am learning more every time I drive it. I got to change my first hydraulic line on a single digit, windy, cold day 2 weeks ago.

I figured out that it needs to make $50 each day to break even. Some days you make it on a single lift. We have had it on this job for 5 weeks, and we have used it at least once every day. We even pushed the trusses up with it, which allowed us to do it over a 3 day period, instead of spreading everything out in the snow and having one crappy crane day.

 

Looks really good there Derry. I noticed you're from Cork. I have a good friend here in Florida that grew up there.

Thanks Jesse. What part of Cork is your friend from? Few pics of it finished.

 

House next door with "Enviro-Dri" coating.

Yuk!

 

Thanks Jesse. What part of Cork is your friend from? Few pics of it finished.

Wow! That's gorgeous.

I'm not exactly sure. I talked to him today and he asked if you're of any relation to a famous goal keeper?

 

Wow! That's gorgeous. I'm not exactly sure. I talked to him today and he asked if you're of any relation to a famous goal keeper?

Ya my father played in goal for Cork.

 

Can you elaborate on this $50/day thing?

The machine has to make 50 a day in labor savings for it to be profitable. Or the other side is to have it billed back to the customer at a minimum rate to do things (set steel, highwalls, trusses, ect ). Moving one stack of sheets to the second floor your money ahead already.

 

The $50 would include: The cost of the machine, fuel, maintenance, repairs, and transport. This roughly equates to about 20 working days per month which makes it about $1000 per month.

 

Finished this one up yesterday.

 

Not getting much insulation in that stairway wall.

 

The $50 would include: The cost of the machine, fuel, maintenance, repairs, and transport. This roughly equates to about 20 working days per month which makes it about $1000 per month.

The realistic is if it's not paying itself and making that much back it's not working enough. I figure my machine covers a 15$ an hour labourer for 30-40 hours a week. Plus it never gets tired and complains. My monthly costs are a bit north of 2k and I'm pretty close to doubling that in savings and billable items

 

I think the $1000/month is just the machine cost to break even. Definitely has to earn more than that to have a return on investment. Don't forget also, it requires an operator. So the actual operating costs would be the $1000, plus the cost of the operator times the hours per month. Lets say the operator is me and for simplicity we say $50/hr for 20 hours per month. We now have a total cost of $2000/month, machine and operator, to break even.

But your right in that it definitely replaces a laborer. If we take the laborers cost at $3200 per month, we are already ahead by $1200 per month. Too early for me to tell for sure, as winter really messes up my profit projections. My goal is to reduce our crane time by 50%, Keep it in continual use, and evaluate it after the end of this year. I have no doubt, that at the worst, I will be a few thousand ahead, as well as prolonging the careers of myself and my crew.

 

Finished this one up yesterday.

Something I recently realized as I started to put together a portfolio, is that I always had messy sites. I use to be of the "hurry up and blast it out" mindset, but I've strived lately to be more orderly and neater on my sites. It certainly has helped me be more efficient on the site. It also makes your finished product standout when you don't have scrap wood laying all over the place.

Then again, I have zero experience working in snow, so I'm unfamiliar with the challenges that brings.

 

Something I recently realized as I started to put together a portfolio, is that I always had messy sites. I use to be of the "hurry up and blast it out" mindset, but I've strived lately to be more orderly and neater on my sites. It certainly has helped me be more efficient on the site. It also makes your finished product standout when you don't have scrap wood laying all over the place. Then again, I have zero experience working in snow, so I'm unfamiliar with the challenges that brings.

I highly agree. We spend 10-15 minutes at the end of every day. Either restacking or cleaning up in prep for the next day. Having everything organized and clean work areas keep the guys more productive and less likely to trip over scrap. Up here in the north we can be fines by the MOL for not keeping jobs clean enough or not a straight walkway into the job. Taking the 10 minutes to keep it clean daily pays itself back the next day, every time.

 

$50 a day is def cheaper than renting. our lull rentals come out to $112 a day I think. and it's always worth it. but we don't need one that often and have nowhere to store it if we owned one so we're better off just renting.

 

When we bought ours thats how we viewed it, it was a way better employee than a laborer ever would be. Ours sits half the year, but it is worth its weight in savings when you need one.

 

$50 a day is def cheaper than renting. our lull rentals come out to $112 a day I think. and it's always worth it. but we don't need one that often and have nowhere to store it if we owned one so we're better off just renting.

It's $1200 a week here. Or $3000 a month

 

 

Here's some from this week.

 

Really nice, Jesse. What do you use for flooring systems, and how are they attached at the perimeter?

 

Really nice, Jesse. What do you use for flooring systems, and how are they attached at the perimeter?

Typically it's top chord bearing floor trusses (16"-24" in height depending on span) 16" o.c. Sitting on double 2x ledgers. Then you would add 2x blocking at the perimeter between floor trusses and Tapcon those to the masonry.

 

Tapcon
I would expect it to be cast right in.. epoxied or with expansion shields.
With icf is anchor bolts cast in.. with hangers or (in your case) top chord bearing trusses. I like those things :thumbup:

 

Yeah should have cleaned up before the pictures. Our site was clean through out. The supervisor kept complimenting us on how neat our site was. However the las couple days it was a bit or a disaster.