Probably the scariest activity I’ve seen at the job site is what carpenters call “plate walking”. That’s when they walk along the 2×4 (or 2×6, in our case) horizontal boards that form the top of a framed wall. There’s not much room for error in how you put your feet down. And it can be a long way to the ground if you slip when you do it on the second story.
But it’s even more challenging when you’re manhandling a bunch of large trusses into place. Sure, the delivery crane does the heavy lifting. But while that takes care of the weight, it does nothing about the mass…which means that if the trusses start swinging — or you start them swinging — they could sweep you off the plate.
Fortunately that didn’t happen on our job. But it was a nail biter, and I wasn’t even doing any of the work!
In addition to the video I took a bunch of pictures of the truss delivery, and of their installation. Next up is putting the roof sheathing on. It’s starting to look like a real house!
