Hi. I'm planning on building a garage 28'x36' with a 12/12 pitch roof. I expect the room upstairs to have what I guess would be called "knee walls". I was at Lowes and they got me a quote on trusses but didn't get me the dimensions, so I have no idea how high the knee walls would be. What would be a common height of knee walls? Or a range of different heights applicable.
With the 12/12 pitch, I assume that for every foot high the knee wall is, the room will be 2 feet narrower then the 28' garage width. (compensating for both sides)
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
I was also looking at local model garages from a company that only builds garages. They had a 24' wide one with 3 foot high knee walls directly above the first floor walls, then the roof on top of that. I forget the pitch, but the roof framing was 2x10's going to the peak, with 2x6 collar ties 9 foot up from the floor. So the angled part of the ceiling went from 3' to 9'.
Maybe it was plenty strong, but to me it looked like it would eventually sag. Especially with the weight of drywall up there. (the model was not finished inside). I was thinking of doing almost the same thing, but the framing would be balloon style with 12' studs on the first floor and the floor/ceiling joists would be at about 8 feet. That would give the little knee wall a hell of a lot more strength to prevent it from sagging and bowing out. Am I worried about nothing or does the need for more strength sound like a good idea?
Thanks, Tony