Dormer placement

[mybuickgs]

I drew my own plans and now I am questioning where I put the dormers. Maybe someone here can confirm I'm not crazy.

I have attached a picture as an example and my question is.... Is there a normal location where the double header begins up the roof? I have seen many times where the dormer is built directly over the lower exterior wall as a starting point. I drew mine to begin at a 2' inset from the exterior wall. My roof is a 12/12 pitch and dormers are 6' wide. All looks good on the plans but don't want to have to pay the contractor to redo if they look too high up on the roof.

I have also include a pic of my drawing. I only get one chance to do this right so probably a bit paranoid.

 

[ghnl]

Either way is 'right' (wall flush or inset from first story). The other thing to make note of is the ceiling. You won't want to duck down to go into the dormer area.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

Often I set them so that the framing for the top of the window opening is at 6'10 to 7'.

Where you fit them in the wall varies, but the drawing looks very good.

 

[mybuickgs]

ghnl,

Your pics looks good. Do you have one with an inside view looking through the dormer? This would be helpful.

 

[Art From De Leon]

The ones on our house are for decoration only

 

[Rosco]

Mine on the garage are flush with the lower wall and are 8' wide and have 8' cielings. I continued the eaves (eyebrows) for the roof. If your roof is 12/12 your dormer cieling hieght will not be a problem. Since mine are so wide, I had to reduce the pitch on the dormers to sit below the main roof ridge.

Also, if your window wall is over the lower wall (more support) you can also build the side walls all the way down to the cieling/floor joist until you get to the knee wall. I capped my entire 2X12 cieling joist (bonus room floor) with 3/4" OSB and built the bonus room from there. The entire deck covered in OSB helps with rigidity and also seals off the garage from the upstairs.

 

[mybuickgs]

Thanks for all the help. The dormers have been framed and as soon as they are wrapped I will post the pics in my build string.

 

[mybuickgs]

Here is what the dormers looked like after they were framed.

 

[larry4406]

Looks nice - make sure your roofer step flashes the dormers (hard to tell from picture).