Posted By Dana1 on 26 Oct 2010 01:46 PM
If you engineer the place, you'll find that you can get the same structural capacity with 2x10s that you can with 2x6s or 2x4s with fewer boards, ending up at about the same material cost, and less labor (fewer boards to cut.)

How do you figure? Pole barn style or what?

Posted By glenfotre on 26 Oct 2010 04:55 PM
2 x 10 walls????????? Just remember, the bigger the board, the harder it is to find a straight one!

You got that backwards. 2x4's are the worst offenders.

Posted By greentree on 26 Oct 2010 06:45 PM

Posted By Dana1 on 26 Oct 2010 01:46 PM
If you engineer the place, you'll find that you can get the same structural capacity with 2x10s that you can with 2x6s or 2x4s with fewer boards, ending up at about the same material cost, and less labor (fewer boards to cut.)

How do you figure? Pole barn style or what?

Details will vary with the actual design- that's an exercise for the engineer.  But you clearly don't need 16" o.c. 2x10 studwall style to achieve the same structural strength of a double-studwall of 2x4s.  Simple 2x6" 24" o.c. studwall framing handles about the same loading as simple 2x4" stud framing with comparable or fewer board-feet of framing timber.  Scaling that to 2x10s would work about the same.