Advice on new barn construction needed

[buckeyefarmer]

assume you meant 16" oc, 18" in not normal. I like to go 16' oc if sheathing, even if you can go 24". I just like it better for minimal increase in material.
That will be a nice sturdy building.

 

[LD1]

yea, 18" dont work out with 4' wide or 8' long sheathing, lumber, etc.

Agree it was way overkill. Spending more money for upsizing and strengthening where it aint required isnt a good value IMO. I Could have laid 12" block, built walls with 2x12's, poured a 12" thick floor, and set my 4' OC trusses a foot apart, but where is the added value in that?

 

[EddieWalker]

Technically it's 19.2 inches for spacing if you want to be somewhere between 16 inches and 24 inches. I tend to call it 18 inches, but that's just a bad habit of mine. If you look at a decent steel tape you will see that they are marked at 19.2 inches, 38.4 inches, 57.6 inches, 76.8 inches and 96 inches. Most people don't even realize that when looking at a tape!!!

 

[Depmandog]

Look at it this way, Drew searched high and low to find a contractor interested in such as small project. He found two, and accepted the bid of the second contractor which was 10k cheaper. Being new to the area, perhaps he didn't have the contacts to find the perfect contractor, (defined as good, cheap and quick). The second contractor assured Drew it would be built strong and Drew agreed to the price since it was in his budget range.

I would much rather have Drew's situation in lieu of inferior materials or a lack of structural strength / or to be looking at a mud hole with no concrete wondering why the contractor isn't showing up and why you can't get him to answer his phone. Nothing worse than working with a bad contractor.

Seeing how the structure is being built, I think we all can agree the selected contractor is good and quick (so far). And since he has no cheaper quotes... is still the cheapest. Drew, I think you found the "perfect" contractor for you. Overbuilt, yes, but you can always say you planned it that way. It's the future gardeners living quarters posing as an open sided shed until the orchard becomes fully established

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Also have to remember he is in prime hurricane region, not that this method will stay up either if hit by a high category storm.

 

[EddieWalker]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that it's a bad build, or criticizing the quality of what the contractor has done. Compared to most of the barns that people post pics of, this is easily one of the better ones. It wasn't until the comments about being overbuilt where posted that I realized just how true that was.

 

[LD1]

If he is happy that's all that matters. It ain't gonna come down anytime soon that's for sure.

 

[daugen]

thanks guys. Yes, I'm sure it's 16 OC. Does that mean if I measure from the middle of one truss to the middle of the next one it should be 16 inches? I'm going to measure them...looks wider than that, and guess what, three trusses left over. ??
Not sure this was measured all that well...but luckily it's irrelevant, it's a shed...
Life is sure a learning experience isn't it?...
Depmandog, well recapped.

 

[LD1]

Yea, on "OC" means center to center.

But easier to measure left edge to left edge....or right edge to right edge.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The last trusses on the end will be less than 16", as you want the sheathing to go to the side of the truss, not the middle. The rest should be consistent at 16", or whatever the spacing is.