Hello all and a new project

Started by peter nap, August 05, 2007, 04:54:34 PM

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peter nap

I'm glad I found this site!
My wife and I bought a small timber farm (125 acres) with a little over a mile over the curves, of river frontage. I was in heaven! There are Deer, Bear, Turkey, quail, etc etc.

Well....To make a long story short, I put a camper there and it suits me fine but my wife has declared it our weekend place. It started small, (we should build a little place on the river) >:(and has grown to where I told her the locals were going to call it the "Widow Naps Place" :-?

What she wants is something like a Mortons Horse stable, 40X60 with a bedroom and bath and the rest a great room.

I've finally explained that 20' wide is tops but I will do what I can with the budget and what few years I have left, to make it at least 60' long and maybe a tad more.

After looking over the plans here, it looks like I can use the 20x30 plans, doubled or a tad more in length, put a 4 foot knee wall on the second floor to raise the roof without increasing the pitch, and have a balcony in the ridgeboard area of the roof.

The first of many questions is;
can I stick build a 6/12 roof with no joists over half the length of the house? This would be the open area in front of the loft (balcony) area.

I have a little better than average carpentry skills but no real experience in load design.

Thanks in advance.

John_C

If you have the 4' knee wall your joists will be on a ledger at 8' give or take.  You won't need them in the area of the cathedral ceiling but you still need to resolve the outward push of the rafters. Usually it's done with collar ties on every other rafter.  There are a couple threads on the forum about doing it attractively.  In your case these would be at the 12' ht. and would be a great place from which to hang lights, ceiling fans etc.


John Raabe

There is a detail in the 20' wide 1-1/2 story and the 2-story Universal for an exposed beam/collar tie at 4' intervals that allow for an open cathedral ceiling. About the highest wall that most building departments allow to be unsupported is 12' - thus you could do the 1-1/2 story with a 12 sidewall and have these beams at 12' with the open cathedral ceiling above. Pretty high up there in short. (If you do a 6/12 pitch it would be 16'-17' to the peak.)
None of us are as smart as all of us.

peter nap

Thanks John and John!
I gave it a lot of thought last night and re read the plan description. There are a few bugs to work out but the plans have a provision for exposed beams anyway.....

If I give the bed, bath and kitchen a flat ceiling with a loft over and use the exposed beams, it should work fine.

I called and ordered the plans and bent Johns ear far longer than he wanted I'm sure......so thanks John.

Now all I have to do is price the septic and well and I'm ready to hammer some nails (well.....almost ready :-/)
Thanks again! :)

John Raabe

Ahhh... I thought that 60' long project sounded familiar!  ;)

I hope the plans help make it happen for you. It should be an interesting project.

John
None of us are as smart as all of us.