pics from my garage build -freaking cold!

[Sundowner]

ok, as some of you may have read my previous posts abuot how rough of a time i've had with my town, the end reuslt was that I COULD build my garage, but it HAD to be attached to the house. Well, I already ahd some pretty bold ideas on how I was going to build my DETACHED pole barn garage that I had committed to, so I went ahead and started building the structure right up against the house, with buckets of lag screws and nails holding both buildings toghether.

I really didn't have a lot ofoptions available to me. I don't have a lot of local friends to rely upon, and I have an operating budget of about $10k to build a 340SF garage with a 1/2 loft and some pretty intracate detailing. (those trusses take me about 3 nights each to build)

here's a few pics from the past weekend's work:

 

[TerryG]

Those are things of beauty! VERY nice work brother.

 

[NSXSOON]

Nice work!!! Sure looks like it will be one hell of a strong structure. Keep the pictures comming!!! As a woodworker I can't help but respect the joinery.

 

[carcruse]

In the middle picture, it looks like those power lines are going over your garage. Hope your not building in an easement.

 

[Sundowner]

In the middle picture, it looks like those power lines are going over your garage. Hope your not building in an easement.

good eye. there is no easement.
50 years ago, the power company thought it would be a good idea to cut the corner on the intersection of the road and just string the power lines over the middle of my front yard. the phone and cable utilities followed suit there after. I did some research at work and brought the oversight to the attention of the power company and they were nice enough to move the power off my property on thier own dime. the new poles now cross the street. the power company has since moved, the cable/phone companies will be out after the first of the year to move thier stuff.

 

[Bevis]

sounds like my phone and cable co. Was gone for a week and they pulled across my property overhead (right where my barn was going) to the next street. I gave them 2 weeks to move it or i was cutting it. (only took a week)

 

[DynoDave]

Nice work sundowner. Those trusses are awesome looking.

 

[Sundowner]

Nice work sundowner. Those trusses are awesome looking.

thanks.
I will say that the most powerful tool that I've used on this project is the Microstation drafting CAD program. No wonder the Amish don't have TV's, you could spend every night of the winter planning out a pole barn on paper.

 

[ksp]

Nice design on that truss, your own or did you find it somewhere?

 

[Sundowner]

Nice design on that truss, your own or did you find it somewhere?

It's my own design.
my day job is as a bridge structural engineer, so I can usually build whatever I can dream up.

 

[timgr]

Nice - I like the gussets. Reminiscent of steel railroad bridges.

Since we have your attention, what function do the gussets on your truss or a railroad bridge serve? The bottom is an arch in compression, the top plate is in tension, the risers transfer load from the top to the arch, and the diagonals are in compression, but what do the gussets do? To me it looks like they only keep all the pieces in alignment.

 

[Yotaforce]

When I build a bridge over my creek out back, I'll come back to that first picture! Nice.

 

[Sundowner]

Nice - I like the gussets. Reminiscent of steel railroad bridges.

Since we have your attention, what function do the gussets on your truss or a railroad bridge serve? The bottom is an arch in compression, the top plate is in tension, the risers transfer load from the top to the arch, and the diagonals are in compression, but what do the gussets do? To me it looks like they only keep all the pieces in alignment.

there are a couple reasons to use the gussets on the wood truss.
the most important is that wood is an anisotropic material. it's properties in shear, tension, and compression are all very different. the gussets are plywood, so you know each ply is oriented at 90* to the next one on top. what you get from that is a more relaible connection that works well in all directions.
the other reason I used the gussets is because that truss is under a lot of load just sitting around like it is. those gussets are working hard to hold that thing together that bottom chord was forced into shapbe with 90lbs of weight from my bench press, and then the infill chords were added to conform to the shape of the deflected beam. the advantage of that is that the bottom chord is compressed already. if you put a lot of weight on top of it, you can force it back to zero before you start adding tension into it. the effect is called prestressing and we use it to design concrete beams for bridges, too. over time the wood wood will relax and settle into it's shape, but it will never be 100% relaxed.

gussets are used on steel bridges because it makes life easier when you go to bolt all the bits togehter. welds are a no-no on railroad bridges becuase they tend to fatigue and crack over a long service life of repetitive loading.
in fact anytime fatigue is a concern, you will probably see gusset plates. next tiem you're on a highway, look at the structure holding up the sign over the road. the newer ones using round tube lattices are usually heavily reinforced with gussets

 

[Jay H 237]

Nice build, I love those trusses too! Definitely will add some character to the inside of the building.



P.S.
I'm originally from Wanaque. I'm into model railroading and used to go up to West Milford often to buy trains at the Model Railway Post Office up by the old Jungle Habitat and the airport where they have the plane attached to the building. Small world.

 

[Charley varrick]

Nice engineering .

 

[Coach James]

A+ nice. I like the similarity to timber framing.
Coach

 

[Sundowner]

Nice build, I love those trusses too! Definitely will add some character to the inside of the building.



P.S.
I'm originally from Wanaque. I'm into model railroading and used to go up to West Milford often to buy trains at the Model Railway Post Office up by the old Jungle Habitat and the airport where they have the plane attached to the building. Small world.

lol.
the Jungle Habitat is still a spooky place, I don't care how much they clean it up.

thanks for hte compliments, guys. more pics will come after this weekend wheen we hang the remaining three trusses.

 

[KELLHAMMER]

Not to mention the gusset plates give you more real estate for your fasteners. If they werent't there.the joint would have little room to fasten. Since there is probably 20 screws in each joint you would not having enough material between each screw. Wood joints don't perform well with screws spaced 1/4" apart.

 

[PECVD2]

Sundowner,

I saw your posts years ago and was impressed with your work then. How are things holding up? Looking back and aside from more space would you have done anything different?
I have wanted to build my next home (retirement) using ideas from your build but retirement keeps slipping away. Anyway, beautiful build and nice use of your space (as indicated from later posts).

 

[Sundowner]

Sundowner,

I saw your posts years ago and was impressed with your work then. How are things holding up? Looking back and aside from more space would you have done anything different?
I have wanted to build my next home (retirement) using ideas from your build but retirement keeps slipping away. Anyway, beautiful build and nice use of your space (as indicated from later posts).

The garage has held up quite well. One lesson learned is about roof overhangs. I always loved the bold roof overhangs on craftsman homes, but I never realized just how much good they do in terms of shielding the windows, doors, and siding from weather, water, and sun. We copied the detail when we redid the rest of the house, and it's so much nicer now that the windows of the house aren't baking in the noon day sun or getting pounded by torrential rains.

I thikn if I had to do it over again, I would have put in more outlets (I have 15 in this little space) becuase I do so hate extension cords. I also would have liked to build a few outlets and dust collection lines in the floor slab, any maybe have done the stairs a bit differently. One thing I really regret is not installing though-bolts in the glu-lam ridge beam so that I could hang a unistrut runner and a trolley for a chain fall or electric hoist. I guess I could still lag up into the beam, but the connection isn't as reliable as if it were through-bolted.