Originally posted by beerfreak:
I have decided to fit the braces in the centre [center] of the post and peg all the way through as the car port will be open,so walls or cladding do not apply.
I am looking at 6"x 2.5" braces curved and 30"x 30" from the corner of the post if you can visulise it,the height up to the wall beam is 8ft,do you think this size of brace will look in scale.
beerfreak,
wether the size will look to scale or not depends also on the size of all other timbers used. Say I am building it with 6x6 post I would use a 4x4 brace. Also the longer the brace the more it will stiffen the frame.
In trade school I remember being tought that a square cross section for posts and braces is always stronger than a rectangular one. And wise versa for beams and joists or rafters.
And yes, for your application centering the braces would look very nice.
Another thought: If the braces are not centered the forces will work unevenly on anything the brace will push against. It would eventually twist the post and beam. One can observe that on old frames a lot. The braces are to the exterior of the wall and so are the studs. The joists however are on the other side of the beam. The beam is always twisted and creates a hump in the floor above. If the beam would have been fully resting on the posts and studs below it would not have twisted like that.
