The Last Wall

Only one more wall left and we are done with the siding.  With that thought in mind, my new neighbor, Danny, came up to help with the last of the siding.  For any of you who have been following this blog, the difficulties with finishing this last wall will be familiar.  For those not familiar with the situation, I will provide a quick recap.  The back of the brewery is 30 feet tall from ground to ridgeline. Further, retaining walls on either side of the cellar entrance make reaching some parts of the wall from a ladder impossible.  I was beginning to feel this task was simply beyond me. But Danny had an idea.

Danny's idea, to over-simplify, consisted of building a platform/scaffold to set the ladder upon.  What we did was take a 2x12 that was long enough to span the retaining walls and add a cleat at the back and outriggers for stabilization.  In the center, a beam was added for additional support.  The ladder was then placed upon this scaffold.  This allowed the ladder to reach all areas of the walls from a level footing.

I admit that I was a bit scared of this whole set-up.  However, Danny is a very experienced carpenter and constructed the scaffold very well.  In the end we were able to use it all day with no mishaps.  Check out the photos to see just how much we accomplished.

Danny's scaffold/platform in place with one ladder.

So close to being done, we can taste it