Re: post and beam sb house

["John Dittli" <dittli@earthlink.net>]

 "peter schorr" Wrote:

>I'm thinking of using four "sandwiched" (screwed together) 2X8's for both
the beams and the >posts. My question is this :Has anyone ever heard or seen
of any
> sb house built this way?  Is using 2X8's overkill? The longest span
> would be 13 feet.
> Also, how does one go about getting the top of the top course of
> strawbales plastered. I think there might not be enough space once the
> roof is on.


Hello Peter

We used "built up" 2x8s (3 2x8s and 2 strips of old 1/2in plywood to give a
finished dimension of 5 1/2 x 7 1/2 i.e.. 6x8). The distance you can span
depends on the loads that will be applied i.e.. 2nd floor, roof, snow on
roof etc. There are tables that will give you this information i.e..
weight/span, or you talk to/pay an engineer as we were REQUIRED to do. BTW,
our engineer equated a built up 6x8 to a solid 6x6 when using the tables. In
any case 13 feet may be a very long span for a 6x6 even W/O any load. You
may need to add a post or two. The one built up that we used was non load
bearing (gable end) 30 ft long and had a max span of 6 feet. Our load
bearing walls required 6x12s with a max span of 4 feet (our house is
engineered for a live roof load [snow]of 100 lbs/sq ft). Also, when building
up beams or posts, I would suggest keeping the dimensions similar to that of
sawn beams, i.e. 5 1/2 x 7 1/2. This will allow you to use readily available
post to beam connection hardware.

As far as buttering the tops of the bales, we used a cantilever truss that
gave well over a foot of space between the top of the wall and the roof (in
the attic).  If the top cord of your trusses and or rafters will sit right
on the wall you should still have 4" or more of space. You should be able to
get mud back there with your hand or a long "spatula".

Good luck!

John
John Dittli Photography
www.johndittli.com

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