Spencer's Pole Barn Project

[Slamfire]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Spencer, I'm sorry I didn't find a single photo on the web last night of a valley. It is possible that I misled you on the height of the ridge of your tee section. It doesn't have to go up to the ridge of the main roof. Butting it on an existing truss is perfectly alright. My complaint is the way your jack rafters are terminated. Starting at the point where the tee's ridge abuts on the truss valley boards needs to run to both corners of the tee where it contacts the main structure. Then the valley jacks run from The ridge of the tee to this valley board. Another set of jacks run from the valley board to the existing trusses. In your first drawing, you need to look into the valley at a diagonal angle. Perhaps what I'm saying will become apparent from that angle. I don't have a house drawing program, or I'd make you a print of what I'm trying to say. I'll be free to leave the house tomorrow, and will take a camera with me. Hopefully, I'll find a roof with a valley I can photograph.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Hopefully you can find a picture because you lost me as well /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Inspector507]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Robert,
I'm lost too.......of course I'm an Electrical Inspector not a Structural Inspector.
What he had, looks like what I'm used to seeing.

 

[Slamfire]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Sorry, picture taking postponed due to rain. Perhaps tomorrow, weather prediction looks favorable.

 

[WVBill]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

I found this drawing on the web at How Your House Works
Hope it helps

I think this is the way you're doing it, right Spencer?

 

[MarkV]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Good graphic Bill. That is not quite what Spencer is doing but close. What you show has a valley rafter, this is a structural support and leaves the space into the gable extension open without the main rafters, off of the ridge board, blocking the opening into the gable extension. Very common for those of us who convert attics into living space. The valley rafter works like a header over a wall opening, it transfers the load of the roof to the top of the wall. Spencer is setting the jack rafters of his gable extension, the short rafters before his trusses come into play, onto the sheathing that covers his main barn trusses. This is a totally expectable way to build if you don't need the space in the area under that gable extension roof.

Looking at photos can be confusing because of the 2 dimensional plane rather than the 3 dimensions your eye would see in person. I think some of the confusion comes from the fact that Spencer elected to raise the ceiling of the extension higher than that of the main barn. This allowed him to place the beam, on top of the poles of his extension, on top of the beam of the main barn. As a result the valley will terminate short of the rafter tails of the main barn. There is nothing structurally wrong with this. You can look at most any dormer and the valley does not go all the way to the rafter tails of the main roof. The only thing that will be effected is the fascia of the main building will step up when it reaches the gable extension.

Now if everyone is not totally confused yet, I'll try again later. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

MarkV

 

[Slamfire]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Yep, that's it!

 

[Spencer]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

I almost got all the plywood up on the 16' by 16' shop addition, which has the two controversial valleys. I debated whether to even attempt putting any sheathing on because I knew we had a whole week of rain coming up. I really want to complete the whole roof before winter sets in so I decided to do it. I only have three more pieces of plywood to cut and put up on one of the valleys. I try to stop making noise by 9:30 p.m. to be a good neighbor so I couldn't do anymore cutting. Rain was forecasted to start at midnight so I had my work cut out for me anyway to get this wood covered up. I have so much work coming up that it is probably going to be at least November before I can get enough time to finish all the sheathing and put the shingles on. Because this plywood is going to sit so long I decided to spray some cheap Thompson's water seal on it before I covered it up with tarps. That way in case the something happens to the tarps when I'm on the road working the wood has some protection from the rain. This shop addition, and the lean-to I made on the other side of the barn for the tractor, really made this barn a lot harder to build. If this barn was a normal rectangular structure I would have been had the roof and walls on by now. I didn't want to take out any more trees than I had to so I designed it like this to get the extra space I wanted. Here is the plan showing the front view of the barn. It has a lean-to on the left side for the tractor. There are three main bays in the middle section for vehicles and storage. On the right side is the 16' by 16' shop addition that I am working on now. I know it will be worth it in the end but it has been a lot harder to build than a rectangular structure would have been. I will have an extra 288 sq. feet in the lean-to and an extra 256 sq. feet in the shop addition. Besides the extra square footage I think the structure will also look a lot nicer than a normal pole barn (once I get all these tarps off of it).

By the way the total square footage will be 2336, it would have been 1792 without the lean-to and the shop addition.

Spence

 

[Spencer]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Here is the right side plan view. This shows the smaller 16' wide roof on the shop addition that I am trying to sheath now.

 

[Spencer]

Re: Spencer\'s Pole Barn Project

Here is the first of three photos I took of the shop addition roof. It was pretty dark out by the time I took these so they aren't the greatest. I lightened them up as much as I could. Here you can see where I still need to cut three pieces of plywood to finish off the one valley.

Spence