The "Bush" on New Construction

L

Locoweed

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Has anyone ever heard of the old custom of nailing a small bush on the end of the ridgepole or truss of a building as it is being framed? I know it was done in old times when, for example, raising a barn. I've seen pictures of it on modern construction, too. It's supposed to bring good luck. Does anyone know what it's called or where I might find a reference to it?
 
A reader on another forum tipped me off that the custom is called "Topping Out" and is still common in Europe and among skyscraper builders. It's explained on Wikipedia.
 
Willow Is. Unit 1--St. Marys WV

Here in our local ((Parkersburg UA-565)) when the unit one boiler hole was "topped out" at the Willow Is. power plant in 76', the "rasin gang" erected a Christmas tree and an American flag...then did a hand stand for the crowd....once you see it done ..you never forget it....it is wonderful to see people take pride in what they do..Roger
 
If you nail a small bush to each building you will reduce the chance that another bush will ever be president again and screwing up so badly that an obama is elected.

Do you think we could start a tradition of nailing a small obama to each Chrysler?
 
Back to the original question.

I believe the custom was to put a small tree at the top of a newly constructed building to signify tht it had been built with no accidents - called topping out.

:D
 
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Topping out

refers to the last piece of material, beam, truss, etc. etc. etc, erected on the structure. There is usually a "topping out" party that takes place afterwards.
 
We were working on a house built by German immigrants in the 1950s. We were adding a second floor. Upon removing the roof we found two Deuschmarks over the lintle of the ouside door. They were of the same year the house was built (1957). There were also alot of pint bottles here and there but I don't think that was related to any specific tradition other than the obvious.
 
My older brother liked to tear apart the fire places of the abandoned ruins of old houses that used to be fairly commonplace in the woods around here.
He said he was looking for coins that people used to put between bricks or stones when building the fireplace for good luck.
He did have a few very old coins, I guess thats how he found them.
 
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