Mark...
Thank you for your reply.
Actually there need not be a second floor...except for perhaps minimal storage.
The frame will be for my boathouse. Usually, to limit neighbor complaints, height is kept to a minmum. Is is common to use low pitch hip roofs...which personally is not my favorite style.
So...to keep the ridge height reasonably low, I'm thinking about having the wall height lower than it would be for a hip roof, and gain needed "bridge clearance" for the boat by using a raised bottom cord truss. That way, the roof pitch would be steeper without the overall ridge height be nescessarily being any higher.
The trusses/bents would be perpendicular to the boat's centerline. The space under the truss/bents would be 4 foot wide dock, 14 foot wide slip, and another 4 foor wide dock...total span of 22 feet.
Joel
