I’m modifying the “garden toolshed” from Jack Sobon’s first book in a number of ways. One of the things I’m doing is extending the post both “below” and “above” the crossbeam, meaning more headroom on the first floor, and a larger kneewall in the loft up above. I ran into the problem he warns against, and put the brace pocket in the same area as the mortise for the crossbeam. There are two solutions I can think of and I’m definitely leaning towards the first, but would really appreciate any feedback, thoughts, or concerns any of you might have.

Solution #1: Extend kneewall height even further, putting the brace pocket up above the crossbeam mortise. I’ve drawn this out, and that means the kneewall height will be extended a total of 1’8”. This leaves me with 3’8” between the top of the plate and the top of the crossbeam. Jack says not to allow more than 4’ between the top of the plate and the top of the crossbeam because the spreading force of the roof is magnified at the post/crossbeam connection as the distance is increased. So, I’m (barely) within this rule. Do people think 3’8” between the tops of these two members is alright?

Solution #2: Instead of using 3’ braces here, use 4’ or maybe a 30-60 will work. My hesitations are this is my first frame, so I want to keep it simple. It seems like there is lots of information out on how to layout/cut 3’ braces. A 4’ brace wouldn’t be too different, so maybe that could be in the cards. I’ve never even come close to working on a 30-60 brace, know very little about their layout, and am not even sure if they would solve this problem. Also, the other braces in the frame would still be 3’, so this means there would be two different sized braces. I like the idea of that, but in the effort of keeping what feels like a dauntingly unfamiliar project as simple as possible with the goals I have for it, this seems like it could maybe mess me up. I also was going to make a brace layout jig, which then wouldn’t work for a longer brace.

Any ideas? Like I said, I’m leaning towards Solution #1, and have already drawn that out, but want to know if anyone thinks the distance between the plate and the crossbeam is too much, despite being within the 4’ rule. Or, if anyone disagrees with my hesitations about implementing a 4’ of 30-60 brace instead.

That’s it, but it may be relevant to say the posts are 8x8s. Solution #1 would give them a shoulder to shoulder length of 10’11”. On top of them sits the 8x8 plates where the rafters are step-lapped into. The top of the plate with Solution #1 comes in at 11’6”. Difference between top of crossbeam and bottom of plate would be 3’ (a lot?).