My wife and I have a small ranch style home in Sacramento Ca. We want to remodel the front to resemble a bungalow but in the back we want to build a water tower structure similar to what old homes used to have before there was water service. On a trip to Mendocino Ca. recently I took several photos of existing water towers. The structures were made of large timbers and later converted to living space. I am wondering how I would frame such a structure. Having sloping walls make the stairs a little tricky. Windows also need to be framed so that they are plumb. A third floor would probably require an exterior set of stairs for egress. I was wondering if maybe I could frame plumb walls as in my sketch and then frame the sloped walls as another layer. I would hope to only shear the exterior sloped walls and just drywall the interior plumb walls. What do you all think. A lot of extra work never bothered me before. I would be interested in framing strategies. I am attaching a bunch of photo examples of water towers in Mendocino. The sketch shows a proposal for my ranch remodel. The height limit is 35 feet. Another reason for the tower is that we live in
flood plain very close to the American River.
Mike Callahan, Lake Tahoe, Ca.
Replies
Mike, those pics are a great collection of something not commonly seen around these parts. They'll be saved to file. Thanks for posting.
As to framing advice, well, here's a bump.
Greetings Mike,
This post, in response to your question, will bump the thread through the 'recent discussion' listing again.
Perhaps it will catch someones attention that can help you with advice.
Cheers
'Nemo me impune lacesset'
No one will provoke me with impunity
Those old towers are great, there are a lot of conversions in the San Jose area where I grew up.
I think the idea of the false sloping walls is a good one, but don't know where the shear would go. Seems like it would do more on the true walls?
I think that a round structure on top, with vertical siding and a witches hat roof would really look good.
Check out this one down south -http://vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/6270.html
A little different, but interesting just the same.
.
Mike
Trust in God, but row away from the rocks.
Our property had a barn and a water tower much like you are considering. We thought about replacing it but decided that the small footprint of the tower made the upstairs a minimal advantage, because the stairs took up a significant portion of both the first and second floors. We ultimately went with a story-and-a-half design that has more footage for the same cost and with less work. Call me chicken...
We did commission a couple of simple designs, and both called for framing plumb walls and sheathing them in the usual manner. Then, a second 'wall' would be built at the inward angle desired. My plan was to simply pour a fairly wide stemwall so that I would have room for two mudsills. Ventilation between the two wall assemblies would be a consideration.
I did this same thing on a small scale on our house. Poured a 10" stemwall and set the mudsill to the inside edge, then framed and sheathed as usual. Then, set a second mudsill to the outside edge, and frame a 'flare'... the bottom of the wall flares out by 4" in the first 24" of height.
Lots of extra work, but I guess neither of us are worried about that.
By the way, I've been to Mendocino many times and have lots of photos or towers there.