Thread: Structaral support ideas/help

Wanting to build a garage that is approx. 24-28 wide and 40 long. But would like to have an apartment upstairs. My local lumber yard is not sure on the best practices and only checked on I joists which they said would only span 24'. Not a lot of help here. Called 2 structural engeineers but no return phone calls as of yet. Am looking for ideas and suggestions to help with this. Not wanting any supports in the garage area if at all possible. Framing the roof possible without going with a truss system as this did not allow very much head room. Looking at a 10/12 pitch roof. Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank You Tony Ritchie

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Tony I would build it using (post frame construction) aka pole building. Post frame construction goes up very quick and is very cost effective. Many new advancements and improvements have been made with post frame construction. Since the main floor is going to be a garage and will have a concrete floor post frame just makes the most sense to me. Also with post frame construction you do not need a typical stem wall foundation.

In my opinion even if they allow you to span 24' your floors may flex and feel bouncy. If it were me I would install a center glulam beam with supports at each end of the garage and only one in the center at 20'. If I was going to build this myself I would have a post frame builder build a roof only building and finish the rest my self. Or you could have a post frame builder build the entire shell and sub-out or finish the upstairs apartment yourself. I was recently going to build something like this for my brother and I feel that I might have some good Ideas and info on what you want to build. If you would like more information send me a private email with you phone number and I can call you.

look into floor truss systems to get longer spans.

Originally Posted by tony ritchie

Wanting to build a garage that is approx. 24-28 wide and 40 long. But would like to have an apartment upstairs. My local lumber yard is not sure on the best practices and only checked on I joists which they said would only span 24'.

Tony,

Use a properly sized girder at mid-point in the 40' dimension, splitting the overall size span required to two 28' x 20', then span the I-joists the 20 foot span direction.

Truss floor joists can span that distance and then you need no center support. You will be able to have a full span. build your apartment on top like you would any deck. Glue and screw tongue and groove 1 inch OSB to the joist. You will be surprised at how solid it will be.

Everyone Thank You very much for your responses and ideas. Today I talked to an engineer and he did not see any reason that spanning 26'-28' was a problem either. I only talked on the phone with him but I am going to schedule an appointment to go over details either later this week or early next week. My local lumber yard talked with Georgia Pacific and they said that using their I Trusses 24' was the maximum span which is not what their span charts show. They also suggested engineered trusses but only had 4'8'' on clearance in the middle? As I am 6'1'' I thought this was a little bit of an issue. After I talk to the engineer I will definately post again and let everyone know what his suggestions are. I have also sent several e-mails out to I Joist dealers but again have not had any responses. ( And again I thought the economy was slow). Again thank everyone for their ideas and input. Tony Ritchie

Jerry thank you also as I had not thought of splitting it into 2 20' sections with a girder and using I joists to span 20'. I will keep that in mind. Again Thank You everyone. Tony Ritchie

You are welcome.

If you are going post and frame you may want to look at sip's for the roof.

There is a type of roof truss that incorporates a room into the attic. They are called...




Attic Trusses!! Here's some example drawings for you. A truss company can usually help you with this. You need to consider the stairway carefully since you can not cut them. Sometimes they put two ply ones to header over a 4' span for the stairway opening.

Typically they are under about 30' unless they use webbing under the room area. They are really popular in the northwest.

Mike, Thank You for the reply. This is the truss plan that My local lumber came back with from GP and it only had 4'8'' for the ceiling heigth. I will look into other company's as well and maybe find one that would work. I am meeting with an engineer within the next few days. Hopefully he will a few ideas and options on how to do this as well. Again thank you for the ideas. I will post back as soon as I get some more ideas and share them with everyone else. Tony Ritchie

Have you obtained a copy of the Western Woods Products Book? This will be very useful to you in your calculations. Also, WPC has numerous productions and "calculators" that will be of help.

Thank You very much I will do a search on the internet and try to find one. Again Thank You. Tony Ritchie