Full Size Shed Dormers

[ajbremer]

Monday - January 2nd, 2012

I'm building the 20x30 1 1/2 story cottage and I'm going to make both sides of the end of my long walls a shed dormer that will go right to the edge.
This will give me a lot more head room above my main loft area.

AAA-DAY's build has a nice shed dormer on one side only but it doesn't go all the way to the edge:



Here's a pic of AAA-DAY's shed dormer from the inside:



By the way, AAA-DAY's build is over at: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=1503.0

Don Lundgren did his Shed Dormer just like I'm going to do mine but I'm doing mine on both sides.
Here's one of Don's pics from his build at: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=7649.50



If you look through the pics of Don's build you'll notice that the wall under his shed dormer section
are only 8' high at the very top plate, at least that's what I perceive. Here's one of Don's pics showing this:



Also, it looks like Don set a 2x12 on top of the top-wall-plate to act as a rim-joist for the loft joists. You can see that here:



Here is a pic of Don adding the shed dormer wall on top of the lower 8' wall section:



Showing these pics here helps me to understand what I need to do BUT it leads me to a question. Why don't I see many
builds like this, especially with the shed dormer on both sides? It doesn't seem difficult to do and it doesn't seem like a bad
thing to do structurally. I've been keeping my eye open for a build with a full shed dormer on both sides but haven't found one yet.

I will be grateful for any comments or suggestions that would help me.

[ajbremer]

Monday - January 2nd, 2012

I wanted to add another thought to this post. I started to think about this shed dormer
condition that I want to build and I guess, for terminologies sake, that what I'm building
is not really shed dormers on the end but simply a different roof pitch, another roof
condition. I'm changing the pitch of the roof from a 12 to a 6 at the start position of the loft end.

[TxBxSx]

I have been considering doing the exact same thing with a "tiny home" build from tiny home builders.



The loft at the rear of the house would be much more useful if the dormers were over the top of it I think. But, I'm rather green in all this myself so I dont know if there is a particular reason why I havent seen it done.

[TxBxSx]

I had emailed Dan over at Tiny Home Builders last night with this question. He just replied and stated that the dormers could be moved and that he simply liked the symmetry of them being centered.

No doubt that pure aesthetics would say that it would look better centered, but as Jay from Tumbleweed Homes stated, there is beauty in function as well.

[ajbremer]

Thanks for that info TxBxSx.

I've checked out those tiny houses before and they are way cool...but MAN, their expensive!

[Don_P]

Monday - January 2nd, 2012

I wanted to add another thought to this post. I started to think about this shed dormer
condition that I want to build and I guess, for terminologies sake, that what I'm building
is not really shed dormers on the end but simply a different roof pitch, another roof
condition. I'm changing the pitch of the roof from a 12 to a 6 at the start position of the loft end.

That makes it pretty simple. The same rules apply as to the other roof pitch, it needs ties across the building from rafter to rafter in the lower third of roof height. Or a ridge beam. Or trusses. It might be worth exploring conventional fink type trusses on the second floor and scissor trusses over the greatroom.

[metolent]

My cabin does exactly that - I have shed dormers on both sides in the back although they arent really dormers as the roof pitch does not return to the pitch of the roof up front.  In my case the pitch up front is 12/12 whereas the pitch in the back (over the loft) is 4/12.  That meant that on the outside walls we have ~8' walls in the loft which is the low point up to ~13' - 14' in the center.  But I also used a ridge beam as Don_P suggests.  Most of the loft under the 4/12 pitch was platform framed with the exception of the outside wall at the staircase which was balloon framed due to the tall window I put there.  There are pictures during framing in my build thread....   Hope that helps....

[TxBxSx]

Thanks for that info TxBxSx.

I've checked out those tiny houses before and they are way cool...but MAN, their expensive!

I'm looking to build one myself for a temp living solution while we get ready to build its bigger brother. From what I have been told, the one I pictured above can run around 14-16K for materials. Thats about what I would spend on a dencent travel trailer of the same size....

[metolent]

Here are pics from my build to clarify what I was trying to describe.

One side -


The other side -


Ballon framed wall in stairwell that I was referring to -

[ajbremer]

Thank you metolent,

Your explanations have helped me out very much and how could anyone not love
your build, it's great - what an accomplishment! I went to your build this morning
and posted a few questions.

(By the way, if anyone is interested, metolent's build is at: http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=9894.0