Is traditional framing necessary?

[chfriedmam]

Ok, here's another pic for you to critique then, ty. This is the Wichita Cabin Coop so popular here in BYC. Very similar in structure to the extremely flimsy coop people freaked out about above-wuich eventually had an inner house. What makes this one better, or is it also a disaster? The reality is the blue one above was built by a pro acknowledging he was cutting corners and it's functional, but i hear the arguments against it!

What I want to do is get away from having my studs perpendicular to the outer walls. I don't like them taking up space and I don't like their aesthetics on an unfinished inner wall.

 

[3KillerBs]

Ok, here's another pic for you to critique then, ty. This is the Wichita Cabin Coop so popular here in BYC. Very similar in structure to the extremely flimsy coop people freaked out about above-wuich eventually had an inner house. What makes this one better, or is it also a disaster? The reality is the blue one above was built by a pro acknowledging he was cutting corners and it's functional, but i hear the arguments against it!

What I want to do is get away from having my studs perpendicular to the outer walls. I don't like them taking up space and I don't like their aesthetics on an unfinished inner wall.
View attachment 2962388

It's possible that I'm misinterpreting the drawing, but it looks to me like the rafters that don't have a stud directly under them aren't being held up by anything other than the power of positive thinking.

Post and beam construction requires a BEAM -- one strong board across all the posts to carry the load of the rafters and the roof.

(Additionally, the ventilation in that coop is minimal and poorly placed).

 

[Ted Brown]

My post above is specific to the Woods KD design but, in principle, could be applied to other layouts.

It would be important to ensure that the overall structure is sound from both vertical and lateral forces.

Obvious perhaps but I thought worth stating.

 

[Folly's place]

There's a big difference between 'what you can get away with' and what's reasonable to build. I want to be safe in my coop!!!
Snow load matters, as does wind speeds, and any storms or mild earthquakes, for that matter. I think that home building standards should be minimums, and it worked for us when a big tree fell on it a few years ago. Some roof damage, no rafters broken, coop and chickens fine. And i could have been in it when it all happened!
Mary

 

[NatJ]

So I see lots of people with construction experience framing walls like they are building a house, with a sole plate and then studs perpendicular to create a space as if we were gonna be running plumbing and wiring and stuff through there. But then I see other coops on Youtube and also CarolinaCoops where they frame it not in a traditional way at all, more like run panels stuck together. Any reason I need to frame my 10ftx8ft coop like a house?

Apart from the snow-load and wind considerations everyone else has mentioned, it partly depends on the size of the structure.

For something really small (like a birdhouse to hang in a tree), you can use just about any size or kind of wood, fasten it at the edges, and it will be strong enough. You might even be able to stand on it without damaging it.

For something the size of a doghouse, you might be able to cut a piece of plywood for each side, and add a few scraps of lumber in the corners to attach them to. Again, you can probably stand on it safely, and it will probably not collapse when snow falls.

But the bigger it gets, the more support you need. You are spanning longer distances, the materials themselves weigh more, and with a bigger roof it gets more total pounds of snow. So the walls are not just holding up themselves, they are also holding up the roof and everything on it.

At 10 x 8 feet, your project is big enough that it should be built like a building (whether you model that on a house, barn, gazebo, or other style.) It is as big as a bedroom in a house, and bigger than some storage sheds.

 

[3KillerBs]

There's a big difference between 'what you can get away with' and what's reasonable to build. I want to be safe in my coop!!!
Snow load matters, as does wind speeds, and any storms or mild earthquakes, for that matter. I think that home building standards should be minimums, and it worked for us when a big tree fell on it a few years ago. Some roof damage, no rafters broken, coop and chickens fine. And i could have been in it when it all happened!
Mary

I don't really have to account for snow load, but I have to deal with occasional hurricanes.

We made the roof very strong against the possibility of wind peeling it away.

 

[Ted Brown]

While both @Folly's place and @NatJ make an excellent point (ie BE SAFE) building code standards are designed for residential and commercial structures and generally do not apply to sheds etc.

If this were true none of the various plastic coops or pre-built sheds available from big box stores would qualify. Nor would things like hoop or pallet coops.

Back yard coops are designed for chickens and some folks do not have the financial resources to construct them to the building code. If code standards were to be applied many of the folks on this forum would not have chickens.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

No, you needn't frame it "like a house". 16" OC studs, the common thumb rule, is associated with the loads typically associated with homes. MUCH larger roof surface area, much larger static and potential dynamic (or snow) loads, greater carrying ability needed to transfer those loads to ground. Same with vertical surfaces - homes tend to be taller and longer than our coops, greater surface area means greater effective wind loads.

Personally, I like "light" framing. I go from 16" OC to 24" OC. I still get the benefit of studs that fall regularly on plywood edges, and I cut about 30% of my timber. I use California corners - because they are clean, neat, and easy framing, but I don't double stud.

Its not that you are cutting corners by doing so, its simply a nod to the fact that the loads aren't nearly as great as in house framing, because the spans are MUCH smaller. and because the contents of the coop are less valauble than human lives.

Now, using OSB? THAT is cutting corners. Don't do it. You probably wan't to put the 3/8" plywood back, too, and grab something that has some heft to it - since your coop will likely only have a single "skin" and no integrated diagonal bracing. The plywood (or hardie board, my preference) skin of the coop is a critical structural element, just like the skin of a unibody car.

 

[Folly's place]

Stormcrow, you don't have snow to worry about, although you do have winds, at least. And of course a, 8'x 10' ft. structure, or smaller, isn't the same as something spanning 2x or 3x the distances when framing, and maybe 2' or 3' of snow.
But too flimsy is still not a good thing!
Mary

 

[saysfaa]

What I want to do is get away from having my studs perpendicular to the outer walls. I don't like them taking up space and I don't like their aesthetics on an unfinished inner wall.

Since you want the aesthetics rather than easier design/build, less/cheaper material, a possible way to improve the blue example might be:
Add diagonal ties under and maybe in the roof assembly.... especially from the top of each wall to the top of the adjacent walls.

The number/size of vertical pieces should carry the same weight, they just need additional bracing because you give up the bracing due to being parallel rather than perpendicular to the wall.

Use screws rather than nails.
Don't use osb; use something that will do better helping carry the loads.

I like nothing about the Wichita cabin coop: not enough ventilation, not enough space, won't scale up in size for you.