flightcrazed

42 minutes ago, Michael_Gia said:

You can do a pony wall where the bottom portion is your 4” high concrete stemwall and the top portion is your barn wall at whatever thickness. Just be careful of how you’re aligning the top portion over the bottom one. I’m assuming you’ll want the outside to outside alignment, since you wouldn’t want a concrete ledge going around the outside perimeter. 
 

The future 4” slab can go in whenever you want as the floor structure. I don’t think you need a floor finish. 
That’ll be provided by the cows, I guess…
 

I'm not sure what “existing road base” is?  Is that just your terrain going through the barn?

 

Genuis!  Thanks for the reply!  Yep, "existing" meaning by the time I go to pour concrete it would be existing.  

Hi all, I'm designing an RCA barn and wanting to design the floors/walls to allow for a future 4" concrete floor sitting on top of (what would be) existing road base.  I'll have continuous footings.  Would I want to design a 4" high stem wall as thick as the wall in Chief?  Or factor it in with either the floor finish or structure features?  Much appreciated!

3 hours ago, M-Reed said:

Remember, you can place a support beam / header within the wall above in order to maintain the code minimum head room requirement.

Thank you!  I did end up talking to my engineer who basically said, "don't cut into the top plates". 

2 hours ago, Renerabbitt said:

well, 6'8 is code minimum because its allowable...same height of clearance as a door which we all have to walkthrough.
Without knowing the implications of the structural change its possible you could put a flush beam, consult an engineer. 

copy that.  yeah, my door is 8' so i'd like to be closer to that. i'll check with engineer...appreciate the help!

17 minutes ago, Renerabbitt said:

This is a code minimum is what I am referring to:

It looks as if you have a structural support above your first riser which requires 6'8 min.
 

That's probably my sloppy drawing :). Here's another view.  Highlighted area is what i'm tryna figure out. Can i put header above plates (so i don't reduce the headroom from 7'3")? And is 7'3" even reasonable for living quarters upstairs (the only living quarters in this building)?

1 hour ago, Renerabbitt said:

Thanks @Renerabbitt for the help here.  Sorry it's the white section with 7'6" measurement depicted here i'm struggling with.  The 7'6 is top of the plate, 7'3 would be bottom (of top). Do i need a header under that as well?  I'm nervous having such little head room as it is for moving furniture up the stairs.

Much appreciated!

Hi everyone, I'm designing a modern farmhouse style RCA barn with living quarters on 2nd floor and struggling with the stairs. My design calls for L shaped stairs beginning in the right "lean to" going thru the main center section wall as shown below. 

I'm wanting to maximize headroom while allowing for proper structural needs (i'm not sure how high we can go into that wall).  Obviously need to stay below the top of shed roof but question is how far below. 

For reference, the 7'3" measurement on "Perspective Framing" drawing is from top of landing to bottom of double top plate.  The 7'6" on cross section is to top of same plate.  Nice to have: keep riser above 7" (close to 7 1/4")

Much appreciated team!  Let me know if you need any more drawings/details.
 

52 minutes ago, Gawdzira said:

 less likely to poison the workers.  I can smell that spray foam for days and I always suspect if you can smell it, it is not your friend.

So true! 

I do like the Zip sheathing.  I did however find this on their website: 

Despite their position, not sure why it would be any different than rigid foam.  I am curious though, let me know what you find out from your engineer!  I'll do some more digging as well.  

I actually used this table in the CBC to come up with the R-5 (hoping to minimize costs ).  According to this table, it seems "they'd" be ok even without spray foam if i went with a tile roof (Zone 3B) but I'm not a big fan of them.  Also not sure that's a best practice.  The foam I'm using here is R6.8 per inch which is more likely what the result would be (vs R5).  But sounds like I should step it up to 1.5"-2" to get to the 25% recommendation?

I think i did find the drawings I shared previously from Building Science...was just looking for a reference to compare against my drawings.  
 

On 4/11/2024 at 10:31 PM, Gawdzira said:

All of the unvented assemblies I have done so far have been Flash and Batt. I am in climate zone 3 so about 2.5" of spray foam (approx. r-19) and then batt to make up the difference to get to r-30. The spray foam goes in before the sprinkler piping to avoid a hot spray foam to piping issue. 

 

For my next project I am looking towards something like you show #2. #4 looks expensive for construction and still gets you the fire issue for embers entering the assembly. With #2, either fill that soffit with spray foam or vent it. That is an area where you will have issues if it is left as shown.

Appreciate your help here @Gawdzira!  How do these look?  This would be in Climate Zone 3B
       

@Gawdzira, curious if you lean towards something like this:

or this: 

Curious if anyone has a CAD block they'd be willing to share for the unvented attic?  (i'm working on modifying these since they are close to my design)

For anyone following this topic, I did speak to my T24 "guy" and Unvented is definitely an option as they have lots of levers to pull to maintain Energy compliance.  Interestingly, nobody in my "circle" has done an unvented attic so I'm on my own so to speak.  Will re-post back here if anyone interested. (?)  Thanks!

2 hours ago, Gawdzira said:

The other question is, why are you doing a vented roof assembly? There are good options for unvented assemblies even if you want to avoid spray foam at the underside of the sheathing. Depending on the size of your roof, with Vulcan vents running continuously on each side that is a lot of money. The last time I purchased Vulcan vents (a little over 2 years ago) they were over $10/ lin.ft for the eave/strip vent type. For fire issue reasons, I have been avoiding vented roof systems as well as vented crawl spaces.

@Gawdzira honestly I'd prefer the unvented route if I can get away with it so I appreciate you challenging me on this .  I thought it would be required given the Energy Code/Title 24.  Sounds like you've been able to avoid the vented route while still complying with T24.  Do you have any examples (section details or references) that you'd be willing to share?  Much appreciated!

11 minutes ago, Gawdzira said:

From that diagram, is the Vulcan vent only at that location. Do you have eave venting? In what I have built I put the Vulcan vent at the point of intake (eave in my situation). This does not make sense to me to have the Vulcan vent at this location. 

 

In theory, the top of the roof would be an exhaust as the heat would rise and exit there. But, in the event of a fire, would this still be the case? Therefore, I would supplement the Cor-A-Vent with 1/8" HDG screen mesh.

Hi Alan, the plan was to use Vulcan at both ridge and eave locations (the ridge is just their continuous vent).  I'll check out the HDG screen mesh as well...thanks for the recommendation!

16 minutes ago, JKEdmo said:

I google "Class A ridge vent" and it appears there are a number of products out there:  Brandguard, Air Vent, etc.

 

Once again, I don't think you need the mesh at the ridge vent.  It's already built into the Vulcan vent and it keeps embers from entering the attic space.

 

My guess is the the ridge vent product would just need to be compatible with your Class A rated roof -- I'm assuming asphalt shingle.

 

So, I think you could make your detail work.

You're awesome Jim!  Appreciate the help

8 hours ago, JKEdmo said:

Yes, I would argue the Vulcan vent functions as the attic vent and the Cor-a-vent is "cosmetic."

 

The Cor-a-vent may however need to satisfy the Class A requirement of the roofing system.  I'd suggest looking into that.

 

Jim

Yep, that's my dilemma. If the Cor A Vent just catches fire anyway, doesn't seem like a good design (from Vulcan).  But if I put Mesh in front of Cor A Vent, probably don't need Vulcan. I haven't found an ember resistant vent in the application shown for Cor A Vent....that would be nice

Appreciate the collab @JKEdmoand @Renerabbitt!

Thanks @Renerabbitt!  Seems redundant to add the mesh in front of Cor-A-Vent and also have Vulcan so I'm not sure if that's a best practice. Perhaps just putting the mesh in front of the Cor-A-Vent is good enough? 

Hi all, wondering if anyone has created Ventilation drawing/s in a Cali WUI area?  I'm particularly interested in a ridge vent, shed roof, and eave design with stucco exterior.  I know Vulcan is an approved Ember resistant vendor and have attached one of their diagrams.  Per the code, it appears to be missing the required mesh in front of the "Cor-A-Vent", if i'm interpreting it correctly.  Hoping someone has created or found a drawing to put in layout for permit submission. Thanks all!

You're awesome @TeaTime!  you saved me.  Thanks so much!

@TeaTime makes sense and good to know, thank you!  I actually want that section of wall removed so that the bottom slope of the roof sits on the wooden porch beams. Any suggestions there?  

Thank you @TeaTimefor the quick reply!  I've attached the plan that I'm working with.  It's in Student edition so hopefully that's not a problem.  Per your recommendation, Default Wall Top is selected and it is showing as an Attic Wall.  I believe the reason it's missing in the view is because it's "invisible".  Is there a good way to just remove that Attic Wall?  Or lower the roof plane the 1' 8 1/4"Monitor Barn 25x60 + 4 suites.planto meet the wooden beams?

Monitor Barn 25x60 + 4 suites.plan

Hello all, I'm designing a Barn and having trouble getting the roof to sit on top of the wall like I want on the lean-to.  I'm trying to design a 9' wall, sloped ceiling with shed roof on a 2:12 slope.  I've attached a few views for reference.  Any ideas are much appreciated!  Thank you