Go With a Ridge Board or Use a Ridge Beam?

[mechengineer13]

Hello all!  I've been a lurker here for about a year and just joined.  I have a question for you experts, but first the background info.  I had ordered a set of plans for a 12' X 16' shed and then found this site (sorry John, I could have ordered some from you had I found you first).  Thanks to the Country Plans forum and site I decided to go bigger.  I've "modified" the plans (really just going for the look now I've modified it so much) to a 12' x 24' shed/workshop with loft/upper floor with a planned 14:12 pitch.  I've framed the walls with 2"x4"x10' with a single bottom plate and double top plate.  Entire exterior is sheathed with ½" OSB.  The bottom floor is platform framed.  I balloon framed the walls for the loft floor.  I let in a 1"x4" ledger at 101" elevation to the bottom edge.  I'm using 2"x8" for the loft floor joists which leaves 16.25" of knee wall above the loft joists including the double top plate.  The loft floor joists rest on the ledger and are nailed to the sides of the corresponding studs using 5 each 3" x 0.131" diameter ring shank nails on each end of the joist.  I plan on using 2"x10" for the rafters for the increased depth for insulation and spaced on 24" centers.  I will install 2"x6" collar ties at 14.5" (to bottom edge of collar) below the bottom edge of the ridge board.  This would result in about a 6'8" headroom for the center of the loft.

Now that I've bored you with all that detail, my question is whether the short knee wall, combined with the restraint provide by the loft floor joists and the collar ties be sufficient to allow use of a 2"x12" ridge board with no sagging and wall bowing, or will I have to go with a ridge beam?     I have no second pair of hands (other than a 5 year old and 3 year old) to help lift a structural ridge and would like to avoid it if at all possible.

Any advice ya'll could provide would be greatly appreciated.  I could pull out some of my old books from college and eventually calculate it, but that will end up rattling too many spider webs in my brain  , and I'm looking for real world experience rather than numbers.  I'm in central South Carolina so snow is not much of an issue.

P.S.  I did sheath the walls on the deck and made up a gin pole with a hand crank boat winch, hinge and pulley that my five year old later used to lift one of the 12 foot long end walls.  I used it for the 24 foot walls.  I don't think it would work as well for a ridge beam.

[PEG688]

2x12 will be fine.

All that info is great to have , you can't answer the question WITHOUT the info. Good job!


Ridge beams are for when NO collar ties / or  lateral support is to be used , cathedral  ceilings , mostly. 

You could probally just do the collar ties on every other rafter pair. Thats most common.  Generally I do 'post up' from the top of the collar tie under the ridge board splices. Then gusset the post to the collar tie with a 1x4 or scrap of plywood / OSB . 

[mechengineer13]

Thanks PEG for the response.  One detail I failed to include is I will be using collar ties at every rafter pair for added assurance.  My labor is cheap, and the additional material is negligible.  I like the idea of posting up at the splice.  I'm envisioning a vertical short length of 2X4 somewhat similar to a squash block bearing on the collar tie and the ridge board bearing on it.

[PEG688]

Thanks PEG for the response.  One detail I failed to include is I will be using collar ties at every rafter pair for added assurance.  My labor is cheap, and the additional material is negligible.  I like the idea of posting up at the splice.  I'm envisioning a vertical short length of 2X4 somewhat similar to a squash block bearing on the collar tie and the ridge board bearing on it.

Yup!