Considering building

[scottbama]

Hello. I am considering building a 24 x24 with 8 foot ceiling on first floor, plus an additional 4 feet adding a gambrel roof on top, kind of creating a simple 2-story. What I am considering is taking 4x4 16 foot and sinking them in the ground creating sort of a structural post if you will on all four corners and possibly a couple more spaced evenly on all four walls for support. What are your considerations?

[Erin]

What you're talking about is a pole building type of construction.  
Perfectly legitimate way to build.

A 4x4 at each corner and "possibly a couple more spaced evenly," on the other hand, means you probably should do a bit more research.  
These are the pole building books we used when we built  our shop/barn.
Practical Pole Building Construction: With Plans for Barns, Cabins, & Outbuildings
Low Cost Pole Building Construction: The Complete How-To Book

[scottbama]

Thanks! Small but practical enough for a single guy! Plan on living and eating area downstairs, bedroom, computer area and bath upstairs. Would you think a gambrel roof would give more space versus a normally pitched roof? The upper area will have a short wall around the perimeter of the building rather than a full-height 8ft wall. Simply because I would rather keep the building process as simple as possible!

[MountainDon]

My first question is, are their building codes and permits involved where this is to be built? That can make a huge difference as to what you do? I may be wrong but a gambrel roof may have to be engineered for code as there are no prescriptive solutions I know of in any of the codes.

[scottbama]

No codes. Live in an area where I am not constrained by such.

[Don_P]

My barn is a 24x24 post structure with a gambrel roof up top. I used 6x6's and have a roughly 2' kneewall upstairs, top plate and then homemade gambrel trusses on top of that. It does have a good bit more room than a simple gable roof would have.

You can have trusses made that would include the upstairs floor and roof structure all in one. Set 'em and the upper framing is done.

[scottbama]

This little space is to be built on a post and beam foundation. I am not sure about this so again I come to you guys. Should I place posts at 0, 8, 16 and 24 feet (24 posts) or 0, 12 and 24 (9 posts) feet both on the perimeter and throughout the inside portion of the foundation. One would create a plus sign type of design and the other would create a checkerboard type pattern. Obviously, the pattern with 24 posts would be much more sturdy but I am questioning if I am doing overkill with that many posts...

Scott Gleaton

[Don_P]

I used 9 6x6 posts on the barn. Ag is exempt here so I could build whatever I wanted. This was intended as a flower drying building where my sweetwife was going to provide for me in the manner to which I would like to become accustomed. After working her way up to minimum wage over a period of about 3 years we realized that plan wasn't going to work. I slowly took over the barn with my stuff, which tends more to piles of lumber sprinkled generously with cast iron. The dogs padded in to help me one day and I gently tiptoed us all out of there, the floor was in serious distress. I went underneath and beefed the 3 lines of girders and doubled up the piers. I don't have as much upstairs but I built a midwall under the center of half and beefed the girder under the center of the other half. We can calc it out finer but that worked. The big difference in the way I built it and the way most of the builds here work is that 8 of my posts go from footing to top plate, #9 in the center terminates at 2'nd floor level. The wall sheathing acts as bracing.

[MountainDon]

Scott, perhaps you could expand on the idea you have for this?  Do you mean a pole barn like Don_P's or a pier and beam foundation with a conventional structure on top? It's a little confusing to me with some of the different comments. Pier and beam success depends on a number of variables, the soil type being a large factor. In many places a large residence is more long term stable on other types of foundations.

You also got me with the mention of 24 posts. The number and the spacing of them depends a lot on the size of the beams, the expected loads, including snow, and so on

[scottbama]

The mention of 24 posts simply comes from my not having a clue. I found a plan on the internet that is similar to what Don_P is speaking of. It shows 9 posts as well. As I get to where I see the need for more information I will post here. I would post a picture, pdf, or scan of the plan for you to see but I do not know how.

[MountainDon]

Use a photo hosting site like photobucket.com   Upload image there, copy the code in the IMG ODE Line and paste that in the message here.

help on that here   http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=3512.0  though the photobucket pages have changed in layout/appearance/function somewhat.