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Small Cabin Forum / Cabin Construction / Exposed Floor Joists
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cvinvt
Member
# Posted: 12 Apr 2022 06:56
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We're building a 24x20 cabin with a 12 pitch roof. The 24' length is the Gable End.

We're planning on a center beam going front to back...20 Feet from front gable end to rear gable...can be supported in the middle at 10 feet. Then 12' floor joists connecting to it from the eave walls. Thinking to use rough sawn kiln dried douglas fir full dimension 2x10 or whatever is warranted for the 12' long floor joists and then putting say 1+ 1/2" T+G pine directly down on top for the second floor floor which would double as our ceiling looking up into the floor joists from below.

Anyone done this? Were thinking it will look great and give a nice feel to the place.

Thoughts, Concerns, Pictures of what you did?

-CV

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 12 Apr 2022 07:37
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It would be better to run the roof in the 24' direction then your span would be 10' with the floor joists.

How do you plan on finishing the floor joists ends? Butt them together? They should be connected to one another some how. You can get around all these issues by useing 20' floor joists. Dont forget that floor joist height takes away from head room in the loft/2nd floor.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 12 Apr 2022 09:49 - Edited by: gcrank1
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We did a 12x24 c/w 12x12 mostly centered loft, forget what pitch it ended up at. It was whatever it was so I had 7' under the ridgeboard. I do know it was almost too steep to walk on to roof it! And I still banged my head and shoulders into those sloped loft sides way too many times.
From the front or back (the long sides) it had sort of a Swiss Chalet look, from the ends it showed a lot of roof. Not a bad look at all.
As we got into our mid to late 40s the loft, accessed by a glorified flat thread ladder, became tougher to use.
Fwiw, our current cabin is 16x24, no loft, cath ceiling, less total sq ft, easier roof to deal with and is far more usable.
I may put in a little stub 'loft' on one end for seasonal goods storage, not people use again.

Aklogcabin
Member
# Posted: 12 Apr 2022 09:50
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CV. Congratulations on the choice of build a cabin. If I read your post correctly I believe you asked if anyone has done tongue n groove flooring on the second level of a cabin so it was visible from below as the ceiling.
Yes on our 16x24 cabin. If fact we just freighted 200 boards out to finish the ceiling upstairs. I really like the looks. I'll post up a picture
Lantern
Lantern
Chill room
Chill room


cvinvt
Member
# Posted: 13 Apr 2022 16:26 - Edited by: cvinvt
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Brettny...We'd rather have the gable end be the 24' not the 20'. Reasons being it will give us more room 'upstairs' for our bedroom as well as the gable end will be facing down the hill, due south and there will be a deck off of it and being the gable end, no snow or rain coming onto it from the roof. I would hope joists being 12' vs 10 feet wouldn't pose a significant structural/framing challenge. The joists are going to connect in the middle to the 20' center beam going between the gable ends. With the roof run in the 24' direction, we'd have less headroom upstairs, wouldn't we?

cvinvt
Member
# Posted: 13 Apr 2022 16:32
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gcrank1...We like the look too...that bit of a chalet look. We're planning on having a proper set of stairs going to the second floor and it should be a decent sized room up there. Should have a ceiling height of 5 feet or higher upstairs in about 16x20. I'm hoping to not spend much time on the roof...none would be ideal.

cvinvt
Member
# Posted: 13 Apr 2022 16:34
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Aklogcabin - I like the look. I do believe our joists will be quite a bit closer though. I fear the person drawing up the structural plans will be putting them 16" on center. I'm sure it will still look lovely though. Thanks for the pics. I like.

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 13 Apr 2022 16:49
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Quoting: cvinvt
With the roof run in the 24' direction, we'd have less headroom upstairs, wouldn't we?

Yes you would have less headroom. Use the blocklayer.com rafter calculator to figure out your head room. You will need to subtract the loft floor joist height.

If you want head room in a loft a gambrel roof is hard to beat. Run the calculator on that too to see the gain in width of the head room.

cvinvt
Member
# Posted: 14 Apr 2022 08:07
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We considered a Gambrel Style but just don't care for the look.

It's a bedroom loft that will give us a larger bedroom than we currently have in our 'house'.

Space is not a concern really.

Appreciate your input though.

-CV

Grizzlyman
Member
# Posted: 14 Apr 2022 23:22
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cvinvt
Hey fb- just curious- are you having this second floor beam support engineered by an architect or Drawing up yourself?

cvinvt
Member
# Posted: 16 Apr 2022 18:21
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A Structural Engineer is drawing up the plans.

Grizzlyman
Member
# Posted: 21 Apr 2022 21:53
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Quoting: cvinvt

A Structural Engineer is drawing up the plans



Very cool. Would love to see plans or a model beforehand!

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