Barnplans.com

[v8dave]

Here is one of the few pictures I have from the inside of the property showing the shop. This is earlier in the construction and shows the side door and bathroom window. I was digging some trenches for drainage earlier and parked the tractor over the area after I finished.

I forgot to say in the earlier post this is 30'x50' shop with 10' walls.

 

[DaNag]

Whew...thanks for all the replies.

Don - I found the truss design you posted a while back. Looks interesting, and keeping the first floor open is something I'd like to do. However, I'd prefer to keep the high pitched ceiling upstairs, and I don't like the idea of losing the small amount of space at the wall edges. Also, I'm thinking of adding a couple 8' dormers on each side - I'm assuming barnplans.com includes details for accomodating the trusses around the dormers, not sure if your design could be tweaked to allow for them or not.

One thought I had...I wonder if the 2nd floor support posts could be eliminated by using those engineered i-beam flooring systems, i.e. Silent Floor, TrueJoist, etc. I'm guessing these might be pricey for 32-36 footers, and don't know how they would affect the barnplans.com engineering - they state on their web site that the second floor is not optional, for structural reasons. If they could be used, I could keep the 2nd story features I like, as well as having an open first floor.

RE the suggestions of using design software or just building as I go...thanks guys, but if I include living quarters, I have to submit detailed plans to the county, stamped by a WA state structural engineer - the barnplans.com folks have such an engineer on staff. It would cost me more to get my own plans drawn up and stamped than buying the barnplans.com plans.

 

[OkeeDon]

I mentioned that I had two estimates for making the trusses. The first company was going to build them to the same size specifications as barnplans.com, but modify them enough to get me my required 120 MPH wind load. While I was there, I also asked them for an estimate for an engineered floor truss. The first thing was that they were not able to get me a clear span at 32' without making the floor trusses extraordinarily deep -- over 24" as I recall. And, as you guessed, they were VERY pricey. However, what they were specifying was not an engineered I-beam, but a floor truss with a top and bottom chord and triangulation in between. The other company gave me something similar, but integrated the floor truss into the roof truss, each gaining strength from the other, with the result that the floor was only 18" thick.

As far as the design software and engineering is concerned, you're absolutely correct, as long as the barnplans.com plans work for you unmodified. In my case, I have to have an engineer stamp them anyway, because of the wind load. So, I have drawn my own plans in TurboCad, using standard stick-built walls and the clear-span trusses. I haven't had an engineer stamp them, yet, but here in Florida, everything has to be stamped by a local engineer. Last Fall's hurricanes and some health problems have thrown me some curves and delayed my construction.