Limited heights restrictions.

[imjustdave]

Hello everyone.

Hoping to get some idea and suggestions.

I have a city restriction of 16 feet for building height, but the measurement is based on the “ Mean measurement” from the Eve and ridge of the roof, measurement taken from the bottom side of the roof. I know strange way of measuring, no mention of required pitch. Exact verbiage way below.

My plan was a 40 X 60 shop with the doors on the 40 side of the building which should be the gable end , Size can change its not in stone yet. Material wise I like the idea of steal as it less likely to catch fire, should be plenty strong ETC and fast build time. But Wood isn’t out of the possibilities either.

So my needs right now are to park my 5th wheel inside and it's about 13 feet 6 inch so I need 14 feet door. 6 inches isn’t much, but it's way better than 0.

I’m no expert in building designs and haven’t had time to master sketchup yet, but feel I can get a door on the gable end that should work Thinking 15 at top of wall and 17 at gable should give me 16 average, making the city happy

I have also been tempted to look at Bifold and or hanger doors, as they are wide and I could get away with 1 door VS 2 doors at 14 or so wide. But bifolds seem to have even higher door needs. 1 piece door would really hinder parking out in front so, not sure I want to limit the ability to park the 5th wheel outside. Thought’s Idea?


SO >>>> this is where you all come in. I know the collective mine has some ideas and experience that can give me a hand.
Building designs.
Door designs.
All l ideas are all on the table.

Am I misguided that this can work?


I even asked the wife today about a modern style garage with one big slanted roof. 60 feet of a slant 1:12 pitch… but I doubt the city would like my idea in seeing it as a pitch VS flat roof.


City definition

“Building height” means the vertical distance from the existing or finished grade, whatever is lower, at any point on the building perimeter to the highest point of the underside of the ceiling beams in the case of a flat roof; to the deck line of a mansard roof; and to the mean level of the underside of the rafters between the eaves and the ridge of the gable, hip or gambrel roof

 

[TTMotorsports]

Single slope roof. Run a 18ft eve one end and 14 on the other. Have plenty of room to run a 16ft door and average out at 16ft height.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

 

[gazza]

Hi size wise my shed is almost the same.

It all started when I needed a large shed to relocate my business from a factory to a home based business, so after a few months of not finding exactly what I needed I decided to design and build my own.
My local shire had restrictions on overall size and height, I was able to build oversize up to the 40' x 60' (18 x 12m)but was restricted to a maximum height of 17' (5.1m) but still had to have a 14' (4.2m) high front door so I could fit a truck inside. Then to complicate things I was required to allocate a set area for the business but the rest could be storage workshop area, so I built an office area at ground level with a raised floor area 20' x 10' (6 x 3m) work room 4' above the floor so I could use the space underneath for ground level storage.

For pictures click on the link below to see how it was constructed. The other images are basic sketchup designs in 3d to give you a better idea of what was built.

 

[Justind97]

Can you cheat?

“Building height” means the vertical distance from the existing or finished grade, whatever is lower

I see this as building up a higher foundation wall and sloping dirt up against it to gain some height. You could easily gain a foot or two by doing this.

In technicality terms, a pitch is a pitch. Use their own words against them if they don't have it specifically outlined.

How about going down inside? You don't state where you are or what the terrain is like, but you could potentially slope the floor going inside and have a catch basin for water at the front door.

 

[NUTTSGT]

It looks like wording to catch all types of roof designs with a variety of trusses/rafters.

I'd guess that if you were to go to the permit office with details of the build, footer/foundation, bldg size (40x60), roof style and type of rafter/truss system, they could spit out what your side wall is allowed to be.

Stop by and inquire, let them know why you need the height. Take a picture of your 5th wheel and have your measurement ready. . . . toss in the tidbit that there is more curb appeal/property value if it's sitting inside and not parked outside.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

Is the existing grade flat? Do you have snow load issues or hurricane safe requirements?

It seems to me that if you have to you could build a minimal RV building. 16' eaves and 18' wide with a 14' door. Easy, but doesn't meet your rules. So then you add a lean-to on both sides, maybe dropping the roof lines to create a clerestory to allow light in and reduce the mean roof height. Then you'd choose the width and eave height of the lean-tos to give you the right mean height. Kind of like this https://www.finefurnished.com/print...g-barn-door-wood-corbel-wood-exterior-wood-s/

 

[readhead]

Be careful that you don’t just look at the outside of the structure. Take into account the structure below the roof. Several times I was hired to erect someone’s metal building and all they talked to the supplier about was eave height. Never asked about interior clearance. On two occasions I had to tell the owners that they did not have the clearance for the motor home. In one case we did an engineered stemwall to raise the building. In the other case it was caught early enough that the builder was able to redesign the building. In both cases a lot more money was spent.

Be sure to design from the inside out. Is a variance a possibility?

 

[Voi]

SO >>>> this is where you all come in. I know the collective mine has some ideas and experience that can give me a hand.
Building designs.
Door designs.
All l ideas are all on the table.

This building height definition has come up in discussion more than once here but I don't know how to recommend searching for those threads. Some good discussion.

I have seen pictures online of red iron buildings where a centered gable door appears to sit higher than the sidewall height. I'll see if I can find an example later today.

Personally I'd prefer to have an RV parked over on one side rather than in the middle of a building so if a single slope roof is possible it might work better. A friend of mine started to shop around for a single slope pole barn for the same reason and it did seem to get that roof style free span was going to come at a significant cost increase.

I priced a bifold door for my garage and it was more expensive just for the door than getting three new doors installed.

 

[Voi]

I couldn't find the picture I was thinking of but here are a couple of similar ones.

First and last pictures too large so I just included links rather than embedding those two images.

http://www.ameribuiltsteel.com/assets/img/products/gable-end/09.jpg

But in these cases it puts the RV right in the center of the shop. I'd prefer it to be off to one side so the rest can be an open work area.

You could inquire about how they'd measure to mean height for a saltbox style roof. Here's one picture. No overhead door on gable end in this example and the pitch is probably steeper than you'd want with your height restriction but it could possibly get the RV over to one side.

Another option is to do a monitor style barn with a lean-to on one side only. The narrower tall area will allow more sidewall height in that section. Down side is probably a more expensive build and you'll likely have columns where the two sections meet.

Something like this but only one-sided, if that makes sense.

http://michaelrtaylor.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/DSCF4249.jpg

 

[imjustdave]

Single slope roof. Run a 18ft eve one end and 14 on the other. Have plenty of room to run a 16ft door and average out at 16ft height.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk

Are you thinking on the long side 60 so one end of the 40 is 18 and the other is 14
or short side of the building. so one side of the 60 is 18 and the other is 14...

I was thinking of the top idea myself but even the other option wouldn't be bad visually ...

 

[Voi]

Are you thinking on the long side 60 so one end of the 40 is 18 and the other is 14
or short side of the building. so one side of the 60 is 18 and the other is 14...

I was thinking of the top idea myself but even the other option wouldn't be bad visually ...

That flat of a pitch over 60' would basically be a flat roof.

Even over 40' that would be less than 2/12 pitch.

 

[imjustdave]

Can you cheat?

“Building height” means the vertical distance from the existing or finished grade, whatever is lower

I see this as building up a higher foundation wall and sloping dirt up against it to gain some height. You could easily gain a foot or two by doing this.

In technicality terms, a pitch is a pitch. Use their own words against them if they don't have it specifically outlined.

How about going down inside? You don't state where you are or what the terrain is like, but you could potentially slope the floor going inside and have a catch basin for water at the front door.

I thought of cheating lowered the inside floor and having the vegetation a few inches higher sides ETC... on the plans it might work as the height would be called out.

But I think if anyone ever threw up a tape I might be screwed due to this verbiage, "at any point on the building perimeter" the driveway would for sure be lower and the first point they walk up to check. Would they check I doubt it, never know.

UGH

 

[imjustdave]

Be careful that you don’t just look at the outside of the structure. Take into account the structure below the roof. Several times I was hired to erect someone’s metal building and all they talked to the supplier about was eave height. Never asked about interior clearance. On two occasions I had to tell the owners that they did not have the clearance for the motor home. In one case we did an engineered stemwall to raise the building. In the other case it was caught early enough that the builder was able to redesign the building. In both cases a lot more money was spent.

Be sure to design from the inside out. Is a variance a possibility?

For sure this is my #2 maybe even #1 thing to look at for me. Thankfully all measurements are from the bottom, why they have to make it complicated I'm not sure. AKA just give me wall height of 16

 

[Samh]

I just had a similar thing before starting my build. Here, the outbuilding can't be taller than the main structure. Height is measured mean distance between bottom eave and peak. Height on main structure is determined by threshold of the front door though. Seems to me, you could knowing the max height tells you where the mean distance is, and you can fiddle with the pitch to give you the best option. So increasing the pitch can give you more height for the door. Then either go wider than you planned, or sacrifice side wall height.