Just picked up the permit today for a little side job building a 2 car garage onto a neighbor’s mfd. home.
Plan review checklist includes the following item:
“When garages are attached to MANUFACTURED DWELLINGS they shall be designed to be free-standing and self-supporting. Garage shall not be supported by or transfer any vertical or horizontal loads to a manufactured home or cabana.”
This garage will attach perpendicularly to the “house” with an intersecting gable roof (creating two valleys). The garage walls WILL be free-standing on a monolithic concrete slab
My questions (Since I’m not up to speed on trailer house rules): Where the roof of the garage meets the plane of the house, do I double the trusses there so the two parts can be separated someday when the house falls apart? Do I devise some kind of a slip joint in case either the garage or the house sinks or shrinks? (The house is blocked up on a slab). Does the roof structure, where it dies into the house roof, constitute loads transferred to the house roof?
While this is a question for my inspector, he won’t be in till Tuesday because, as a non-veteran, he has Veteran’s Day off, of course.
Replies
Where is this,? we just had an inspection today, this dude was no veteran , either.
listening for the secret.......searching for the sound...
Oregon
Notchman,
The inspector is the guy you have to satisfy so I'd make my suggestions to him. I really do have a problem though with the garage being on a foundation and the house(so called) being on blocks. Are the blocks on footings? If not you have the makings of a disaster on your hands if that thing shifts. I like your idea of some kind of slip joint to deal with the potential movement. You might try talking the customer into building the garage 4to6feet away from the house and attaching it only with a small roof in between, sort of like a breezeway. The small roof should have enough flex to deal with an or so of movement by the house without tearing everything apart. It would still qualify as an attached garage for appraisal purposes. Also your customer would stil be able to carry groceries etc. from the car to the house without getting wet. Be interested to know what you finally come up with.
Mark
"do I double the trusses there so the two parts can be separated someday when the house falls apart? "
Not sure why you would want to do that. What would you be looking for the trusses to do? What would they hold up?
If you think you may tear down the house someday, put a structural gable at the end of the garage. That way it could either be a clear span truss, or a gable end down the road.
Talked to the inspector today. The garage being "freestanding" simply means that no part of its primary structure is dependent upon the mfd. home for support, with the assumption being (by the Oregon Building Codes Dept) that the mfd. home has a limited lifespan and if it were removed, the garage could/would remain.
Otherwise, building a cricket on to the mfd. home to tie in the roof is OK.
Just an aside: This state has a special code section and licensing requirement for constructing foundation pads and setting Mfd. dwellings. For example, I'm a fully licensed GC (res. and commercial), but I am not allowed to perform ANY part of prepping for or setting a mfd. dwelling (not that I'd particularly want to). Even pouring the concrete pad to set one on requires "special training" and license. (The garage is OK because it is to be built using conventional stick construction standards, as would decks or freestanding porches or whatever).
A friend of mine who does masonry begrudgingly got one of the licenses because he got hooked in with a developer in a retirement community who is putting in hundreds of the darn things. He feels the whole licensing requirement is just the result of CYA lobbying by the National Mfd. Home Association and another way for the state to pick up a few more clams.