USA - The Wood-Mizer Way 89 Spring/Summer 2012 | Page 25

P AR T 2

A dream coming true in the Sierra
Nevada Mountains

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In this second installment of Larry Andresen’s story 15 years in the making, we
will discover how he went about building his dream home and woodworking
shop. In future articles, we will find out about the fire that almost destroyed his
home, and learn more about the final stages of the interior finish work.
This project includes building a 3,000 sq. ft. woodworking shop/garage and a 1,400
sq. ft. residence above. The shop area is 72’ long by 30’ wide with 24’ x 12’ wings protruding
from the middle of the building on each side. Inside the shop are three 24’ long x 12’ wide
lofts for storing lumber. The design of the building was primarily to accommodate the
sawing, processing and storing of lumber and space for special wood working projects.
There are three 14’ tall x 20’ wide roll up garage doors on three sides of building with lots
of glass for natural light. The idea is to provide room inside for three units of 20’ lumber
and machines for processing along the walls on each side.
The shop walls and rafters are made from solid logs sawn flat on one or two sides. The
walls were put together by sawing logs to create an 8” to 10” flat face on two sides then
stacked with corners alternatively crossed and notched to fit together. The first course was
bolted to the foundation using elongated coupler nuts to the anchor bolts with all-threads
extending up through the first course or bottom log. From this point, the logs were spiked
into each other every two feet, and staggered from one side of the open face to the other
using 3/4” pipe extending into the log below.
When constructing the log walls and compression was the only load factor, using any
locally available species was acceptable and we used a mix of ponderosa pine, Jeffery pine and
various other types of fir. For headers over the doorways and for the structural timber trusses,
we used hem fir. For the roof and floor decking, we used ponderosa pine and Jeffery pine.
Where the walls are short in length, such as next to doorways, ‘hold downs’ were
required. Hold downs consisted of continuous 1” all thread bolts extending from the
foundation to the top of the walls up 20’. With all thread bolts coming in 10’ lengths, logs
were threaded over 10’ of bolt at a time. The tricky part was starting the bolts through the
holes while the log was suspended 10‘ up in the air.
Once the walls were finished, we started working on the rafters and the trusses. Roof
trusses were constructed on site using Wood-Mizer sawn timbers. The trusses are set on
top of the twenty foot tall log walls with the living area created from using the open space
within the trusses. In this area, skylights not only work well for light, but are also perfect
for taking in the mountain and skyline views. Each truss was assembled on the floor one at
a time. It took about a day to cut, nail, paint the gussels, move the truss into position and
secure them on the walls. The main trusses span 30’ using 4” x 14” top and bottom cords
and 4” x 8” for webbing. Trusses were engineered using ¼” steel plate gussets and bolts at
the connections.
For the roof decking, we sawed logs into 2” thick boards and stacked them to air dry.
When reaching about 12%, I thought the decking was good to go. However, the boards
continued to dry after they were installed, which resulted in up to 1/4” gaps between
boards. With the black Typar house wrap paper above the decking and with the rustic
characteristics of the timber framed trusses and log walls, the gaps were really not a
problem. They actually ended up looking just fine, and resulted in an air tight job as well.
Above the decking we placed 2” x 4” sleepers at 24” on center, installed flat and
doubled to equal 4” of total depth. Between the sleepers, we put 4” of polyisocyanurate

2005

Top: The roof has 26 4’X8’ skylights and 8
more that are shaped to form the octagon
configuration at the ridge intersection.
Above: Larry and his wife, Cheryl.

I’ve never had a log that was too big to
saw. With the bed extension, sawing logs
over 30’ becomes easy. This efficiently
engineered and easy to operate sawmill
has been a joy to own and operate. Going
from working outside in cold snow and ice
conditions to having a 3000’ enclosed/
heated shop is a “Dream Come True!”
About the Author:
Larry Andresen is the President of Andresen
Counstruction, Inc., in Truckee, CA, an
Excavation Contracting business, providing
excavation and building services since 1979.

LatheMizer
attachment released.

LT10 sawmill released.
LT28 replaces LT25/
LT27 models.

foam insulation, which has an R-value of
about 7 per inch. When added with the
wood, the R-value came to a total of 28.
On top of the insulation, we put another
layer of Typar and then a layer of ¾”
plywood. This plywood was the ONLY
lumber that had to be purchased for this
project, as all other lumber was sawn from
logs on the Wood-Mizer.
The floor is constructed under
“Heavy Timber Construction” guidelines
using 3” tongue and grove planking
spanning 4’ and will be finished with 1”
tongue and grove pin