Newb and a couple a questions

Started by Sooner, May 15, 2006, 07:44:04 PM

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Sooner

Hi All. Great Site.

Before I show this to my husband like to ask a couple questions. I am getting ready to order the Victorias cottage plans.

#1- Can this be built on a block foundation ?
#2- Can manufactured trusses be used for the roof ?

I looked thru the forums and hope I did not miss a previous post with the answers.

Thanks for the help

Billy Bob

Hi, Sooner, welcome to the party!
I am planning on the Victoria Cottage, too.  I'm at the stage of reviewing my takeoffs to be sure I didn't miss too much... it will be a long trip to pick up some fiddling little thing.

I don't see why a block foundation wouldn't work.  I personally would not try a mortared block foundation 'cause I don't have the experience/skill set for it, though I looked at some of the dry stack techniques where you plaster it with a fibrous material, (surface bond).

I think you would lose most of the head room in the loft area with manufactured trusses, but will defer to more experienced builders on that point.

Good luck with the project.  I think Victoria's Cottage is a cool little house!
Bill


n74tg

#2
If you plan to have an upstairs bedroom then using manufactured trusses will destroy your headroom.  
If no upstairs bedroom (or other living space) then sure go ahead and use trusses.

I can't see any reason why it couldn't be built on a block foundation.

================
Wow, when I started this reply there were no other replies.  Interesting that BillyBob and I said about the same thing.

I AM building a house (30x57) using dry-stack for the foundation.  Check out a complete dry-stack house at texasmusicforge.com/gimmeshelter
My house building blog:

http://n74tg.blogspot.com/

AAA-DAY

Hi Sooner,
We built the 20' x 30 story-and-a-half cottage, similar to the Victorian, on a block foundation. It worked out great.

Amanda_931

#4
There are a couple of kinds of trusses that you could use, depending on why you want them.  

Scissors trusses--with a lower ceiling pitch than roof pitch.  These swing up like the standard truss.  I've always wondered if they looked a bit peculiar--but they do solve a handful of problems.

And you can something like a truss-joist or i-beam, so that the roof framing is extra thick, but that goes up like oversized rafters.  (and there's the kind of parallel rafters connected with 2x4 triangles)

Here's a description of a scissors truss--I think I've seen drawings from the truss company where the ceiling did look rather more than half the pitch of the roof, but they also looked a bit wobblier than this.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/B348_Scissors_Truss_Design_.shtml


glenn kangiser

#5
Also, Either Bart or JRR mentioned attic trusses once - they would make the attic space a bit smaller  at the sides- central area open.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

bartholomew

Well then, maybe it was JRR!

I might be wrong but typically attic trusses are designed for light storage loads. No reason you couldn't ask the truss company to design them for a heavier load though; it would probably just mean they'd have a more substantial bottom chord.

John Raabe

The block foundation would be easy to do with the Victoria design but doing a truss roof on this house would destroy the loft and turn it into a one story house.

The Grandfather, Volks cottage and the Universal cottage can all be done with manufactured trusses for a simple quick roof.
None of us are as smart as all of us.