Raising the Wall

Now it's time to raise it into place! Either get a few people together, or use heavy machinery like I did.

 

I ran some straps from the top plate to the backhoe on my mini-excavator, and raised the walls that way. Set them onto the foundation and line up the anchors. Hopefully everything lines up! If so, use the washers and nuts to tighten the sill plate to the foundation.

Now, time to measure the diagonals again and fix any flex that occurred when nailing and raising. I just used my backhoe to push on the side of the wall that needed adjustment.

Temporary reinforcement:

The walls are not very strong at the moment, because they're missing the double top plate and the OSB sheathing. So, I used some scrap 1x4 lumber placed diagonally and screwed to the INSIDE of the walls. Don't use your super strong ring shank nails for this, you'll never get them back out! I used a screw gun with some cheap drywall screws. This reinforcing will keep the walls square so you don't need to keep measuring/adjusting the diagonals.

The walls are also prone to tipping away from vertical, especially if the wind gets ahold of them, or an errant backhoe bucket. So, use a plumb-bob to ensure the wall is plumb, and use some diagonal reinforcing to the ground to keep them perfectly vertical. I nailed long pieces of scrap wood in several places at the ends and along the walls, diagonally to the ground, and placed concrete blocks on the boards at the ground to keep them from moving. This is what it looked like:

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