Wood Shop Design question

[Bryan Rocker]

Good sunny afternoon fellow Creekers,

I have been designing and redesigning my shop for the better part of 3 years. I have decided on ICF walls for the crawl space around 5' tall. As I was putting in some rough pins this week I came to the conclusion that I need to move my shop to the south side of the lot to keep from taking out a very nice 30 year old maple tree. In an effort to maximize my southern exposure I am looking at running the 35' wall facing the south and the 20' walls facing east west. One option I am really looking hard at is to run the walls at different heights. The north wall at 9 or 10' and the south wall at 12-13 feet depending on code restrictions. Is it possible to run an open web 12-16" tall truss at the top of the north wall over to a cripple at the same height. The run another smaller truss to the top of both walls. The first set of trusses would to all for cable/ducting/storage....

is this doable????

Bryan

[Thomas Canfield]

Bryan,

Take a sketch to a local truss supplier and get them to check it out and give you a quote. They can tell you what is practical and possibly make some suggestion. I had special made trusses for 16' wide lofted barn shop to have 10' wide by 4'H open space down middle. I probably could have even got more headroom, but I was wanting to keep overall height down for local neighborhood. Truss cost was not that bad and really sped up roof framing. Delivery was only about 2 weeks after order was placed, and quote took one week.