20 x 30 1 1/2 story question roof pitch

Started by Fortner, May 19, 2008, 07:27:13 PM

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Fortner

We are new here.  My husband and I are building in North Mississippi on some land that we have inherited.  We plan on this being a guest house in a couple of years.  Since we are building this ourselves, we have a couple of questions.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!! :)


Are there any structural considerations if you extend the 20 x 30 to a 30 x 30?  Especially with the roof pitch...?

Thanks,
Natasha & Jonathan

MountainDon

 w* Natasha & Jonathan

Extending the length is easy. You simply build more foundation, more side walls, more roof.

Making a building wider is a whole new kettle of fish. Everything changes from the ground up. Everything. You may require the services of an engineer or architect to...  1. be sure of sizing materials coorectly and 2. getting the plans through the plans inspection process.

Are you in a code compliance area?

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


Fortner

No, we do not have any codes.    We are just looking at the layout that we have walked off, and it looks so much smaller than we anticipated.  Any comments or help would be greatly appreciated!!! ??? ;)

Thanks!!
Natasha & Joanthan

John_C

It is almost impossible to judge the size of a house in the layout stage.  Even when the frame walls have been erected but before the sheathing goes on, when you can see clear through the framed structure, the house looks small.  Once it is dried in you can get a real feel.

Try to visit a similar house that has been completed. Keep in mind that house of comparable dimensions will also feel different if one has an open plan and high ceilings and the other is cut up in small rooms. 

phalynx

Fortner,

We did the exact same thing and staked our place off and everything looked too small.  Ours is 20x34 with 8' porches front and back making the footprint 36x34.  That felt like it was the right size but we knew it was including the porches.  When we built the first floor subfloor, I kept staring at it and telling my wife, it's not too late to make it bigger.  It looks small.  It wasn't until we had the osb on it and a roof overhead that you can judge the size.  Once we had that, the place looked so much bigger.  We went with 9' walls downstairs which really give the place a bigger feel.  There are lots of things you can do to trick your mind.  If I had to do it all over again, I would move our master bedroom upstairs to make a much larger downstairs or add 4' to the length.  The width of 20' hasn't really been a issue.  Take your time in the planning stages.  We must have redesigned ours 50 times.  10 of which was after we poured footings.  It's amazing what you can do with John's simple scalable plans.


glenn kangiser

I like the idea of the open design with the kitchen and living room not having a wall between them-- it really seems to increase the size and usable room.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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

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akemt

The option I've been playing with is doing a 20 x 30 (or 20 x 34) with the equivalent of about 12' porches (though they'd be part of the house's living space) along both 30' + lengths.  I'm thinking I'd do the 20 x 30 section with a 6/12 roof (I'm talking about the 1 1/2 story, fyi) and then switching to what I think would need to be a 4/12 pitch on the porch-like sections.  Tieing in the roof is really easy if done this way, but you would have to be sure to support the 20 x 30 section's side walls well just as if they really were exterior walls (with windows, doors, etc) to support the 20 x 30's roof load.  That means that aside from some well-planned and supported open sections (or places with posts for support) those side sections would need to be restricted to 12' lengths with simple doorway access.  What I've done with my housplan to make this work, since I too love open space (we built a 20 x 30 1 story addition on to our house and left it completely open as living/dining area --fabulous), is put the master bedroom, bath, Utility room, a mud room, guest bath, kitchen or dining depending on plan, pantry, coats closet, etc on those side sections where 12' isn't a huge dilemma.  Then I've got the entirety of the 20 x30 (minus stairway to top floor) for an open floor plan to use as living and dining or kitchen, depending on my priorities and plan. 

Just a thought I've been playing with.  Then the extra foundation is just "extra" and not changed completely, the spans and beams of the 20 x 30 stay the same, etc, etc.  You might need to beef up the exterior walls of the 20 x 30 on the long lengths to support the top of the shed-style roofs over the 12' sections, but someone else would have to speak to the engineering part of that.  We were planning to do the doubled walls for doubled insulation anyway, so figured we'd just support the second 1/2 story of the 20 x 30 with the interior 2x4's so we'd have double walls at that joint anyway.  I think the plan is 2x6 exterior all around...we want to overbuild wherever possible, including plywood sheating on the exterior and on the interior instead of drywall --no codes to deal with here either.  I HATE drywall!  We're also in a drastic area as far as weather conditions are concerned, so stout is good.

I hope I explained that so you can understand what I'm saying...With a plan like the above, you can get a 32 x 30 with just one additional section, or a 44 x 30 with both sides. 
Catherine

Stay-at-home, homeschooling mother of 6 in "nowhere" Alaska

glenn kangiser

Adding on to the side(s) is a good way to get additional space without changing the 20x30 or longer framing.
"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.

Fortner

I believe we are going to extend the length to 36'.  And turn the house on the foundation horizontal.  That way we can make a longer front porch.  I have some pictures of the lot and wil try to upload them.   :) 

Thanks so much!

Natasha ;D


John Raabe

Good suggestions.

Also, it is not much of a modification to enclose one of the porches if needed.
None of us are as smart as all of us.