Building Alaska

- Season 9

(2019)

Three new build teams arrive to their build sites and begin building their unique cabins in the remote Alaskan wilderness. Josh Tousignant and his crew make the long trip from Palmer to Cordova and arrive on site to begin building the slab foundation for their clients' two story cabin. John Donkersloot and Heather Rough drive their 40 foot shipping containers for their cabins foundation up to their mountainside build site in Seward. Chris Maynard and his crew fly out to build materials and install helical piers for his foundation on Trinity Lake.

At Trinity Lake, Chris and Joe begin to chop down an 80 foot tall spruce tree when it begins to fall to early, and then later have repackage their materials after a helicopter struggles with their first delivery. Over on Mt. Ascension, John and Heather fall behind building the floor system of their cabin because of the rain and will need more help to get back on schedule. In Cordova, Josh and his team must forklift their materials up the muddy driveway to the build site after the semi gets stuck at the bottom, and a complex build plan with tons of parts and pieces ...

This week, Josh and team begin working on the interior walls and installing second story floor joists for their Cordova cabin. Chris Maynard begins to build a dock for his float plane when he runs out of lumber, and has to adapt when the framers he originally hired don't show up on Trinity Lake. John and Heather work with their friends and family to get ahead by building a dormer wall and installing the loft flooring, but will mis-measurements and mis-cuts keep them further behind than ever?

The build teams are building high in the sky this week. Chris Maynard and team prepare for two intense helicopter deliveries of roof rafters to the second story floor of the cabin, and Greg precariously scales a raised rake wall to nail it into place. John and Heather work on finishing up the roof by installing the insulation and metal sheeting when the forklift won't shift gears and threatens to knock over their timber frame. Josh and his team work from jagged pallets lifted two stories high by their forklift and rickety ladders late into the night to finish the ...

With all three builds running behind schedule, the teams all rush to get ahead. Heather's daughter Reghan comes out to help with insulating the walls, John and Heather build a water catchment system but discover they aren't getting enough water pressure, and John installs the cabin's ridge caps on the slippery tin roof in the rain. Chris Maynard and team install his new roof rafters using a toy slack line, Chris later becomes an air taxi service in order to fly as much help out to his build site as he can, while Greg and Ivan wait on a delivery of a main deck beam ...

John and Heather's build is put on pause as they try to figure out how to install their drywall without covering their timber frame, a new team member comes to their rescue to help them finish framing their walls, and they get a late delivery of lumber to finally finish the decking system. Chris Maynard and team are growing tired. The delivery of Chris' windows spin violently in the air, Joe and Duane work on the steep roof installing the metal roofing tin, and the team works on finishing the insulation and the tongue-and-groove walls before Chris runs out of time and...

Time is running out for all builders to complete their projects. At Trinity Lake, Chris Maynard enlists help to install solar panels that will create DC power for his cabin and sets up cameras to watch for bears, while Greg and Ivan work fast trying to finish the interior tongue and groove paneling for the cabin's roof. Outside Cordova, Josh works on the custom log stairs as Jeremy takes his time to precisely cut and build the cabin's custom windows. On Mt. Ascension, John and Heather's build site is flooded and they must rebuild the road to their cabin. Later, a ...

The builders are in the final push to finish their cabins before winter strikes. Josh fights rain and wind to install the wood stove and finish the roofing tin, and Chris rushes to install kitchen counters before company arrives.