Walls less than 8'

[Richard Gentry]

I have a contemporary home and one of the exterior walls that is part of the great room is only about 4 feet tall. The roof slopes down and ties into this wall at about 12 feet above the deck. The wall does not line up with the one below. I need to fix this wall to try and help with the roof design. The roof is 5 over 12.

In the front of the house the roof extends from the second floor down over the garage. The roof is a simple Gable design with a cathederal ceiling on the second floor loft, which is open to first floor also.

The third thing is there are some attic areas around the edge of the second floor. When I do a roof these areas are not covered. The box is checked even though they don't actually have a ceiling.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. I want to get my house into the software and then design an addition. Thanks for the help.

Richard

[Dan Park]

Hello Richard,

How you approach this problem is going to depend on what version you are using. If you are using Pro you can edit the profile of the wall in cross section. In Suite you will be more limited in how you can do this. For a 4'wall try using a railing instead or if it can be done try adjusting the ceiling height.

On the areas that are not building a roof you want to make sure you are 1) getting room definition. and 2) that the room has the roof attribute checked.

[Richard Gentry]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your reply,

I'm using Suite 6.0 on a contemporary existing home. I substituted a railing for that wall (rear exterior wall about 4' tall) but the side or perpendicular walls stay at 8'. So I get a really big window in the back of the house. Is there any way to have the top of the side walls slope, or is this only done by the "design roof" part of the program? What about when you have a house with dormers on the second floor, do you create a exterior wall on the second floor? Or does the creation of a knee wall tell it what to do? Could this exterior wall be checked as a knee wall? Actually it's two walls about four feet apart with the first floor wall centered underneath. But if I could just get one short wall I would be happy.

I know a picture is worth 1000 words. Shoud I try to send one in or can I post one.

Plus any suggestions on making my roof over the second floor tie in to the roof over the garage. Its is just on big flat slope on the front of the house. I sure it is very much out of style and that is why the roof design is having problems with it. The roof design puts a beautiful roof on this house with about 14 different planes. I would hate to try an construct it.

Thanks Again!
What a fun use of my computer.
Richard Gentry

[Dan Park]

Hello Richard,

I think the best way to handle this is to have you send the plan to me and I will take a look at it and let you know if this can be done.

my email is dan@chiefarchitect.com