Timber Portal Frame - but stick built

Hope it goes well.

 

Let us know if it ends up triangular ?

Shouldn't be a problem. The diagonals are only out by 30cm , should be alright I think. ?

But I can't wait until Digital setting out  is finally available for cheap. Would make life so much easier.

I,m with @Patrick, I set out all my build and garage, I love learning stuff, it is a lot easier with two people tho, and lots of string and a good spirit level.

17 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Shouldn't be a problem. The diagonals are only out by 30cm , should be alright I think. ?

But I can't wait until Digital setting out  is finally available for cheap. Would make life so much easier.

 

CM or MM...???!! 30cm is a big amount to be out of square....

It was a Joke @PeterW . Thanks for worrying.(out by 3mm max )

I wholly agree with the idea of doing as much yourself as you can, for much the same reason, learning something new. 

 

I had a fair bit of worry over our setting out, despite having checked and double checked that the critical stuff was in the right place.  Just as well I was so concerned about getting things in the right place, as we ended up with a foul drain stack coming up closer to the inside edge of a wall than I really wanted.  My fault for thinking that having it within ~±30mm would be OK, it really needed to be within about ±10mm of where it needed to be.

Setting out a simple layout on a clear level site is not too tricky to DIY.

 

A complex design on an undulating site with different slab or foundation levels would be well beyond me.

And when the Pro came with lasers and GPS etc to set out our site he bent down to spray the accurate position of the front corner of one of the houses and saw a nail about 5cm in one direction and spot on in the other from his mark. He said "whats that?" "Mine" I said: - done approximately with a builders tape and no real though to accuracy. I was pretty pleased  and it just goes to show that even on a slope you can get pretty close with simple tools. Now if I had spent the time I am sure I could have got it much closer.

 

However when I see the contractors out there all day with an auto laser and measure checking and re-checking  everything I think that probably the initial setting out is the least of the problems. Probably what you will need is a quick way to check as you go along so I would be looking for the right tools, or be prepared to spend a lot more time.

1 hour ago, Red Kite said:

However when I see the contractors out there all day with an auto laser and measure checking and re-checking  everything I think that probably the initial setting out is the least of the problems. Probably what you will need is a quick way to check as you go along so I would be looking for the right tools, or be prepared to spend a lot more time.

Yep. Time is the main difference. The commercial for Digital Total Station tells that the average traditional 2guys team does approx. 400points/day and with the digital tools you can now double the point to 800points/day(marking) with only 1 guy.

 

I was doing traditional autolevel points on my own and approx.  30points/day.

 

Completely unacceptable for pro-contractor.

But I have 0 cash for contractors and a fair bit of spare time to build the house.

 

1 minute ago, Patrick said:

But I have 0 cash for contractors and a fair bit of spare time to build the house.

 

? DIY rules.