14x24 1 story in Northern Arkansas

[MountainDon]

On the top plates be sure to lap the joints by 4 foot at least over the upper plate. You probably know that; just a reminder. 

[Taylor]

Thanks for the heads up on the top plates, I knew I need to over lap them, but wasn't to sure by how much.

Here is an autocad drawing of why I was thinking of using 2x6 ridge board, I plan on have a ridge vent across the top and if I use a 2x6 and line the the rafter up at the bottom I would have 13/16" of the rafter sticking above the ridge board.



Thanks

Taylor

[MountainDon]

Well, that looks better than what I expected... I expected the tops of the rafters lined up with the top of the ridge board.     However, even if you do it the normal way (2x6 rafter, 2x8 ridge...) you can stop the sheathing a little short of the ridge line to leave space for venting. Or run it tight and cut slots with a circular saw. I ran my roof sheathing right up to the peak and cut slots on the house roof. On my cabin I didn't use a ridge vent system. My reasoning there was that the ridge runs east-west. The predominate winds are north-south or vice versa. Heavy rains are usually accompanied by high winds. A ridge vent seemed too prone to possible wind driven rain infiltration. So we decided gable ends vents were better for us.   

Your plan should probably work as most of the strength in the rafter ends is in the lower portion, but I do know that would cause most inspectors to have a second look. No problem if there's no inspector. 

[MountainDon]

Speaking of ridge vents some studies have shown that under some wind conditions standard types of ridge vents do not perform as well as expected. It is possible for a wind to blow against the side of the roof, up and right through and out the other side without any actual venting of attic air. Some ridge vent system employ a "spoiler" lip at the top of the roof surface that interrupts the wind flow. that prevents a lot of the pass over wind flow.

I can't recall where I found that info. But I could not find a local source so that influenced my choice as well.

[Taylor]

Thanks Don, I think I will go with the 2x8 since the is "norm" and I don't what to have in the back of my mind that I might have taken a short cut to save a 98 cents the difference in between the two. We don't have inspectors or permits to build in the county as long as you are outside the city limits of the towns, and I am about 2/3 miles out of the city limits of the closest town, so I lucked out. I might have to research the ridge vent some more, since I live on top of a hill and get a good amount of wind, but I do notice must of the houses on my road all have ridge vents that run the same mine will and a lot of the have be built in the last couple of years.

I would think if the wind blew right through the vent it would create a vacuum in the attic and help draw the air out, but I might be thinking wrong. 

Thanks

Taylor

[n74tg]

I read your post about needing a taller ladder to put up the rafters and ridge with.   If you haven't already bought one, here is a pic of one I built so I could install the top brace on my trusses when they were set.  It's made out of four 2x4x12' and cost $12 to build, pretty good considering the cheapest 12' A-frame ladder I could find was $180 at Lowes.  It's heavy, but it's solid.

[ScottA]

Looks good. I like your plans.

[Taylor]

n74tg: I built a ladder like that before to get up on the roof of a trailer where I used to live. I don't really care for heights to begin with and didn't really like the ladder I built, plus it was hard to store and the one I bought folds up and easy to store, like this:



Thanks ScottA, I really like how you did the siding on your cabin, it is really nice looking

I got some more work done today by myself. I got the rest of the bottom row of sheathing up and most of the top plates finished. I am going to get some help tomorrow I hope and rip my osb down to finish the top off and build my wall across the front and the shed that will be my bedroom wall and support the roof there. I also picked up a few boards to make up some rafters and ridge board and hopefully get that going tomorrow. Then they are saying rain for four days starting Sunday. And of course here are some pictures:











Thanks

Taylor

[MountainDon]

Good progress Taylor. Coming right along. Lapping the sheets down over the joists and rim joists is an excellent idea for rigidity.

This is not meant as criticism, but is meant for others reading this thread. One thing that speeds up the wall sheathing a little is to use 4 x 9 ft panels... those appear to be 4 x 8, correct me if I'm wrong. The 4 x 9's are not going to be found at most big box stores. In fact some real lumber yards don't carry them; but then I wouldn't call them a real lumber yard. They do cost more per sq ft than the 4 x 8 ft, but they save time. Also in some areas under code inspection, you'd have to install horizontal blocking where the upper and lower panel edges meet. Some codes call for nailing along all sides of the panels.

[Taylor]

Thanks Don.
I understand about the 4x9. I built my walls with 96" studs so I have taller ceiling heights inside, more work dry walling but the 4 or so inches I think will make a difference, so the 4x9 would have still been too short and I got 20% off my sheathing at Lowe's when I got it. I hope to get my blocking in tomorrow also and I still need to block the sheathing on the shed part too.

Thanks

Taylor

[Taylor]

Well I didn't do to much today, my helper didn't show up until late. I hope if it is not raining tomorrow I might get some rafters up.
I built this wall:



And since we are going to get a few days of rain or snow/sleet I came up with this to help keep the water out of the shed:



Thanks

Taylor

[zion-diy]

FYI, I have 5 acres of my own land for sale in North Central arkansas,listed on the land4sale part of this website.No credit needed.Owner financing.If you are interested check out this link, Thanks Lin

http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=5824.0

[devildog]

I was curious to know how you are tying the two building walls together. Are you cutting a doorway in the wall w/ garage door or are you removing it all together, or leaving it in and having a 7" wall? Thanks darrell
Your doing a greatjob!

[Taylor]

Thanks devildog, I plan on removing the wall with the garage door in it after I get the roof on and then I will be left with the wall I built there with 32" door.

My helper came over today and we get the last of the osb up and figured out the birds mouth cut on the rafters which was in the wrong spot at first which you can see on the rafters that are up. They are just temporary to hold the ridge board up and I wanted to make sure I had my cuts right, so they will be removed and replaced after we get the other rafters up.

Here are some pictures





It is going to be a few days until I can work on it since we are going to have bad weather, but it looks like the weather is going to be nice at the end of the week so maybe I will have my roof on and doors and windows in and get my siding started before x-mas.

Thanks

Taylor

[Taylor]

I thought I would post pictures of what little work I have done. The weather has been bad, got like 2" of snow and sleet and my pipes froze so I spent all of one day thawing them and my pump out, and then I have been sick. But today I wasn't going to let anything stop me from working, it was sunny, mid 20's, wind about 20-25mph, wind chill mid teens, so I didn't get to much done working by myself, I got some rafters cut and a couple more up, hope to get more done tomorrow.



Stack of rafters



Thanks

Taylor

[Redoverfarm]

Yes it seems something has been going wild this year.  It usually only last 2-3 days but definitely puts a crimp in your style.  Heal up then work.  The roof is no place to be if you are not 100%.  Even using power equipment is a risk as your mind is not actually on what you are doing.  It is easier to cut a board later with 5 fingers on each hand rather than 3 or 4.   

[diyfrank]

Hi Taylor,

Looks like your making good progress.
I see you painted your subfloor.  Hows that working out for ya?
I may borrow your idea on my build this spring. 

[Taylor]

Thanks, Painting the floor didn't really work as well as I thought it would, the osb looks about like the osb did in my shed after it got rained on some and it wasn't painted. I am going to sand it flat and paint it again after I get it dried in, and live with that until I can get me some bamboo flooring.

Thanks

Taylor

[Taylor]

Finally got a nice day and I got to do some work. I got a couple of days of 60 degrees and about a week and a half of sunny weather, so I should have a roof by the end of the week. I got some pictures of my work for the day. I was working by my self today, my helper didn't show up until I had all the rafters up so we made a lumber run for tomorrows work.



You can see the nails from where I removed the bad rafters, so I still need to remove them.

[glenn kangiser]

It's progress.

[Taylor]

Thanks Glenn

I got some more work done today, I got pretty much half of the roof framed. I hope to get most of the other half framed up tomorrow, but it is slow going by my self. I also figured out my over hang. Here are some pictures:

[ScottA]

Looks good. Comming right along. 

[Taylor]

Thanks ScottA

I got some more work done, it was a bit windier than I like, so I didn't get everything I wanted done, like usual, lol. I am not stopping tomorrow until I have all the rafters up, then Thursday I am going to trim the rafter tails and start putting sheathing on. I have to get at least get sheathing and tar paper up by Monday since that is the next time it is going to rain.
It is pretty hard to get a 2x8x12 ridge board up by your self but I managed.







Taylor

[ScottA]

I'm having flashbacks of doing my roof alone last winter. What part of Arkansas are you in? The landscape looks about like around here. I'm in NE OK.

[Taylor]

I am smack north central Arkansas, about 20 miles south of the Missouri Boarder. I am about 140ish miles from the Oklahoma boarder.
I will try to get a picture tomorrow from the top of the roof, it is a great view. I wish heights didn't bother me because I would really like to have a two story, but there is no way I would do a roof that far off the ground. 

Taylor