I’m framing a family room over my garage and it has a full cathedral ceiling with a doubled 2×12 as the structural ridge. My concern is the gable wall, should I frame it with 8 footers and then build on top of the upper plate, or should i ballon frame this wall so the 2×4’s go all the way to the rafter? I’m concerned about the plate(s) at the 8 ft height acting as a “hinge” in windy conditions. My plans do not specify to do this. the room will have an 8/12 pitch roof and is about 13′ wide by 25′ deep. If my math is right the height from floor to bottom of ridge is over 16 feet. The side wall where this “hinge” would be will be sheathed in 1/2″ plywood. I was thinking of trying to get the full sheet of plywood to land so the double plate would be in the middle of the sheet, then nail the hell out of it. what do you think?
Craig
Replies
Craig,
Ballon frame it at the gable end. Find the common differance between the studs and it will go up fast. Keep the volume!!
craig
When we run into a big clear story wall that is peppered with windows we always baloon frame. And if needed we order 1/2" thick 3-1/2 or 5-1/2 steel plates to run up the full height of the wall and lag bolt them to doubled up studs in a couple of spots.
I'd balloon frame it with 2x6 studs.
They don't make 2x4 studs 16' long and most linial doesn't have very good strength properties when used as tall studs.
If you don't want to use 2x6, then I'd suggest doubling the long studs (everything taller than 10').
blue
"They don't make 2x4 studs 16' long"Blue,Believe or not, they make 2x4's up too 20' around here. 16' are stock everywhere and 18' and 20' are stock at some lumberyards. Not saying that we use them for walls studs but they have them.Joe Carola
I wonder how a pile of those twenty footers would look strapped to the top of an old Dodge Omni?
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
I'll try to find that picture, but it was a Volkswagen Rabbit, hope that will do.
View Image
Yea but 20' 2x4's would be more impressive.
Tipi fest 06. I'm getting wood.
Mike! there is no way that that is real!! Did you cut and paste that together?
It is all together too real.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limits.
I found it Googling for a picture of 2x4s on a car top trying to have fun with Gunner. That's the closest I coud get. I have no idea if it's real or fake. Looks too heavy ro be real.
"With every mistake we must surely be learning"
It's real. There's a whole story about it. It's listed on snopes.
Tipi fest 06. The island is going down, Ese.
I found it Googling for a picture of 2x4s on a car top trying to have fun with Gunner. That's the closest I coud get. I have no idea if it's real or fake. Looks too heavy ro be real.
I agree.
The materials were loaded at Home Depot. The Home Depot store manager made the customer sign a waiver before loading. Both back tires are trashed. The back shocks were driven up through the floorboard. On the roof are many 2X4s, 4X4s and OSL sheets of lumber. The load isn't all that meets the eye either. In the back seat were ten 80-pound bags of concrete! They estimated the load weight at 3000 lbs. The car is a VW Jetta with FL plates and the guy said he was headed for Annapolis!
It was a real pic but the car never left on its own . So in reality it was to heavy to work. Which is what our eyes told us and others as mentioned in the atricle .
Tim
Edited 7/13/2006 8:03 am by Mooney
Gunner pointed me to this. Guess it's true.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/lumber.asp
"With every mistake we must surely be learning"
Wonder what he was building.
I run a Dodge 1500 Ram PKup with extra HVYDTY suspention and I wouldn't even think of hauling that!!! I just cannot see how they were able to move!
It seems to me, that it would be easier to have it delivered!
I have a 1985 F-350 with a 4.10 rear end and brake assist. I've had loads about that size in it. It rides nicer with a yard of gravel in it than it does empty.
-- J.S.
Joe, I'm referring to stud grade materials. The longest length of stud grade that we see is 10'. We also can get #2 or better up to 24' long, but it is not a particularly strong material suitable for vertically loading.
blue
Here I've seen 2x4's 20 ft. long, and if you pick thru them, you can find some SEL STR or 1 & Btr. But 3 1/2" is so small for that height that even the best of them would be way too bendy to hold up that roof. Something this size would never get a permit here without an engineer's wet stamp.
-- J.S.
I agree with balloon frame--if you frame it in two walls with a plate between, it will want to "hinge" at the plate and bow in or out there.
Have you considered engineered lumber to give you more lateral strength? Double or triple king studs next to window openings.
there are no windows in the wall. I really would like to frame it conventionally, not too good with balloon framing.
Question #1: why isn't this engineered?
Moving on, you mention doubled 2x12 as a 'structural ridge' so I'm assuming this is a ridge beam with the rafters bearing on top? If so, then you need columns to carry that beam. Those need to be incorporated into the gable end wall. The rest of the gable end wall is not carrying much more than its own weight and the only real consideration is lateral distortion from wind loads. 2x6 over 16 ft will easily do the job, especially with rows of solid blocking every 4' o/c. If stiffness remains a concern, consider LVLs as studs.
Just make sure those columns are sufficiently strong and have continuous bearing down to foundation.
The plans dont call for the rafters to sit over the 2x12's. I assumed they would be nailed to the ridge like they always are. As far as the gable wall, sounds like I'm goingwith 2x6's
So if the rafters aren't sitting on top like a ridge beam, why do you need double 2x12? Single would be plenty.Lignum est bonum.