Bonus room over garage

[Bradley Boltz]

I'm trying to put a room over a garage on a one story house. I don't want a full second story and am ok with the pony walls that the roof will create. I cannot figure out how to do this. Any assistance?

How you do it depends on whether you will be framing the bonus room floor and roof system with Attic Trusses or via stick framed with rafters and floor joists. I believe that if you want to do it with attic trusses you may want to build the roof prior to creating the second floor.
You will have to raise your truss heel height to accommodate the 2x10 bottom chord, typical with attic trusses. You will then have to use raised heel trusses for the other parts of the house roof so that your eves align.
Once you've created your roof and second floor, you can adjust your ceiling height to 7'6" or 8' (can't be less than 7' by code-except can be lowered to 6'8" at beams (verify with whatever IRC code version for your jurisdiction).

If stick framing, then build your second floor and set your ceiling hgt to 1.5"(rafter plate that sits directly on top of 2nd floor joists) and build your roof planes. Once built you can re-set your ceiling height for proper head room and establish the bottom of your ceiling collar ties.-Brad