porch floors higher then house

[gaylesiler]

I have the book and I've spent hours going thru it over the double railings on my porches when I put a pier under it. That is why I thought it would be better for me to come in a forum and ask. Sometimes people have experienced that same problem and know exactly what you need to do. That's why I came in here, with hopes of someone having the same problem.

I do appreciate all of you trying to steer me in the right direction.

Have a good day

Gayle

[Allen42acj]

http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread....ghlight=a+plan

http://www.lfcompany.com/chief_tutorials.php

[Curtis Johnson]

Gayle:

I think what Wendy is getting at is that it appears that you haven't, in the minimum, learned many of the basics of using CA, of which setting floor defaults is one of the first things you should learn and do when setting up a project.

From your images, it appears that your porch was actually be built with joists based on your 1st and 2nd images (the floor diaphram looks thicker than 4"). It is not obvious to me exactly what type of walls you used to define your porch initially.

If you want CA to frame the floor for you, then you should probably call the room a deck with a ceiling above (structure tab). Then when you open up the structure tab, you will have a place to define your deck (porch) planking thickness as well as the joist thickness.

For decks, CA's floor structure defaults are 1-1/2" and 7-1/2" for decks. I don't recall why CA uses 7-1/2" vs. 7-1/4" for the joists so if you want 2 x 8's for joists, you'll need to make that change. I don't think you want to use I-Joists in any location exposed to the weather - that is the wrong place to use them.

CA is an extremely powerful program with tons of bells and whistles to learn how to use. You have to exercise some self motivation in learning the very basics of the program if you are going to become a proficient user and it doesn't appear you have made that effort yet. I do commend you for learning how to post images on the forum and that is a very good thing to know how to do when it comes to discussing problems and displaying images of those problems.

Don't feel like you are getting picked on ... someone will always try to help out ... but, you might get a bit of advice from some users that may not necessarily answer your question but in the long haul will help you get better at using the program because a lack of responses to your questions on the forum forces you to do some digging for the answers on your own. There is another CA forum on Yahoo you can participate in if you desire.

[WendyWelton]

Oh Gayle - of course the porch post thing is the one thing that's really not in the book! I think you stepped on a bug with that one, which is why I suggested you send it in.

Now that we know have the book, we'll be able to direct you to the appropriate sections to augment advice here.

For your porch right now - did you get it yet?

I can't write a chapter, but here's a quickie:

1 - Default Settings - Framing - Foundation tab - Sublfoor for First floor

2 - then - Select Porch "room", open dbx - Structure Tab - make joist thickness etc match the house.

[Tommy Blair]

Gayle, if you were here in Houston or if I had my own GoToMeeting, I would be willing to help you for free for a few of hours and show you some of the basics to set you in the right direction when starting. As you have found out, this program can be a bit involved but knowing the basics of how the program works and thinks is a must. All of this will come to you in time. Maybe I could help you though by phone in the evenings or on weekends a little if you want.

[louis]

Tommy,

You can use my gotomeeting.

[Tommy Blair]

Tommy,

You can use my gotomeeting.

Well thank you Louis. Do you see this Gayle?? I will be happy to help you in the evenings (except this Monday) or on weekends. Louis is exceptionally generous to let me do this for you. You may call me at the phone number listed below or email as shown below. One on One help is as good as it gets.

[gaylesiler]

Yes, I would appreciate a go to meeting. Just let me know how to hook up with you in a go to meeting

[Tommy Blair]

I had a 3 to 4 hr. online meeting with her yesterday afternoon and her plan is now good to go and is now workable. However, I can't hardly imagine her absorbing all the information I gave her in that one meeting.

[nyallj]

Just one tiny bit of advice here. What I did when I first got the programme, was to sit and go through the tutorial that comes with it step by step. I think it's an excellent tutorial and will more than get you up and running with the major parts of CA. I get most of the nitty gritty right here in the forum with its search tool, and then I post when all else fails.