jar546
CBO
Until it collapses.
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Everyone Loves a Cathedral Ceiling
- Thread starter jar546
- Start date
Wow. That's bad.
TheCommish
SAWHORSE
get out the turnbuckles and high strength steel
That.
Yankee Chronicler
REGISTERED
How did that ever make it through plan review?
jar546
CBO
Well, let's discuss that. There was no plan review and no permit. You see, the 3rd party agency that was serving the city at the time was "connected," and the agency owner was the building official. The house was being constructed by one of his friends, and the BCO asked me to stop by and help him because the contractor (yes, contractor) was building this as a rental property for himself. The 3rd party had no employees and was a one-man operation, so he started sub-contracting inspections and some plan reviews to my 3rd party agency. Ahhh, the politics of Pennsylvania. I miss those days. So many awesome photos back then.
fatboy
Administrator
Besides the thrust issue, the gable end wall has a nice hinge built in, watch that baby flex in a good wind!
I hear no mention of an engineer but then when does a building official need an engineer?
Since what was constructed failed the question becomes one of finding who was responsible and who will design the fix. We might expect to find some lawyers involved to help sort out who pays for the fix.
The lesson is that the owner cannot rely on the inspector to make sure that the project will perform as intended.
Since what was constructed failed the question becomes one of finding who was responsible and who will design the fix. We might expect to find some lawyers involved to help sort out who pays for the fix.
The lesson is that the owner cannot rely on the inspector to make sure that the project will perform as intended.
jar546
CBO
There is no reason that this style of home couldn't be built prescriptively without cathedral ceilings and no engineer would be required whatsoever. To keep the cathedral ceilings in this instance and make the repairs will require and engineer or architect.
Yankee Chronicler
REGISTERED
It could be built prescriptively today, with the caveat that the ridge would have to be an LVL and the building would have to submit the LVL supplier's computation sheet for the LVL.
Or it could be built prescriptively if the designer was willing to accept rafter ties located in the bottom third of the rafter runs. That would obscure the attic window if the ceiling/tie rafters were sheetrocked as a ceiling, but they could be left exposed.
Or it could be built prescriptively if the designer was willing to accept rafter ties located in the bottom third of the rafter runs. That would obscure the attic window if the ceiling/tie rafters were sheetrocked as a ceiling, but they could be left exposed.
I don't want tp upset anyone but it seems apparent that this can be built without an engineer or a permit.
The LVL suppliers sheet was prepared by an engineer. This also assumes that the architect, who has some engineering training, has verified that the final design is consistent with the suppliers computation sheet. Thus this is not a prescriptive design. in order for it to be prescriptive design the building code would have to provide the solution, which it does not
The carpenter got there first.
Probably half of everything that is built lacks a permit.
steveray
SAWHORSE
Rarely in this part of the world....
steveray
SAWHORSE
Shirley they will glue the drywall and they probably glue the sheeting and that rigid diaphragm will make it OK....It will last for year I am sure....
tmurray
SAWHORSE
I ran the sheetrock around the rafter ties in my office and built them out to look like beams, but there were only 8 of them in this small room. A lot of work, but it kept the "open" feeling.
I did all the sheetrocking and crackfilling, so no one could complain about all the extra work but me.
Inspector Gadget
REGISTERED
There's a part of me that wants to question if your work was in compliance with 9.29.5.9(7). Just because.
tmurray
SAWHORSE
It is. I gutted a whole house, so I bought the proper tools to do the work, including a drywall lift and drywall screw gun.
Yankee Chronicler
REGISTERED
This actually looks VERY much like the bonus room in a house a friend of mine bought about 20 years ago -- minus the vertical and horizontal 2x8s at the left of the photo. The bonus room was unfinished (mercifully). After the first winter, as he was starting to think about finishing the room, he noticed that the side walls were decidedly out of plumb. He asked me about it, and I showed him the code sections that required ties that were missing.
Temporarily, we bought some chain and three come-alongs and ran those across the room at the plate level. The bonus room was over a 2-car garage, so it's 24' x 24'. We put the come-alongs at 6', 12', and 18'. Over the next several months, he gradually used the come-alongs to tighten up the chains, one click at a time, until the side walls were vertical. Then we discussed what to do for a final fix. He considered LVLs, but he really wanted to keep the open look. What he ended up doing was having some bent steel anchor plates made to hook over and bolt to the top plates on the side walls. Those connected to big, round steel rods (1-inch, IIRC) that he had custom made with a turnbuckle in the middle of each. One by one, he replaced the chains and come-alongs with the steel rods and turnbuckles.
It came out rather nicely, and has been holding for many years.