Height of Sugar house

[Big Stoney]

We are planning on building a 24x32 pole building for a sugar house. I was advised to have at least 10 foot ceilings. If we set 14 foot poles and poured a floor we would be less than 10 feet. Would a starting height of 12 feet below the trusses be too great?

[unc23win]

I don't think you could ever build walls that are too high. 10' is a good minimum to account for evaporators with pre-heaters most add about 2' to the height of the evaporator. The only disadvantage of higher walls would be that you would have some wasted space. I used scissor trusses for my sugarhouse, which give me more inside height than normal trusses and I think the ceiling will look better when I get around to it.

[maple flats]

ceilings used to be in the 7' range years ago, to help get the steam out, but now, with taller pans, hoods, steam aways and such, plus the use of steam stacks, 12' will be no issue. I have 10' and even without a steam away it gets crowded when I raise the hood for cleaning. 12' might have been a better option, but it would be costly to raise it now.

[Tweegs]

We went with a ridge beam construction on our shack.
No bottom cord or web to get in the way as with traditional trusses.


Down side, if you want to call it one, is that the evaporator has to be located off center in the shack.