Atop Adobe Walls

OK. Now our neighbors have adobe walls completed. What comes next? Well, of course the roof.

Previously I noted that bolts were cast into the bond beam atop the adobe wall. At right you see the top plate boards that are fastened to these bolts. These boards appear reddish and looking up close you might be able to see small slits. This is from the rot-resisting chemicals that are used when the wood might get wet. (In my experience this is only used at the bottom of walls, not at the top.)

This portion of the house will have a peak roof, so the next step is to fasten the roof trusses (left in picture) to these wall plates, as seen in the photo at right. The roof trusses are carefully engineered for each application and are made in a factory and shipped to the job site ready to install.

On the left you see about half the trusses for the peak portion of the roof. This roof will have a ceiling that mimics the shape of the roof. You might notice the space between the upper and lower chords of these trusses. This space gives room for insulation.

Interior walls in this house are not made of adobes.

An interior wall is shown at right. You can barely see the shiny head of a nail that fastens the sill (lower horizontal board) to the concrete slab. (The sill does not appear to be pressure-treated lumber here.) This wall separates the living room from one bedroom. It is made of 6" studs to allow for sound insulation.)

The remaining exterior wall is shown in the photo at left. The studs in this wall are 10", both to mimic the thickness of the adobes in the other exterior walls and to allow for more insulation. This wall has many doors and windows, so building it of adobes would not have been very practical. As with the interior wall, the sill is nailed to the floor slab.