Beam for loft/hoist: Is there a legit engineer in the house?

That will do the job.......
no ,I'm not an engineer but I've played one on occasion....

 

what it takes an engineer 6 months to figure out it takes 2 good men 6 hours to fix.

 

remember, what supports the beam is as important as the beam itself....steel posts buried in the walls work out best....wood posts tend to do funny things with not-so funny results.

 

Try this http://www.aps.anl.gov/APS_Engineer...ical_Operations_and_Maintenance/Calculators/E

 

wood or steel pillers ?

we had one about the same size and length at work and we wouldnt put over 2000 pounds on it. it may of been 3/8 thick

 

Don't have my books here at home but I would be alot happier if it was an 8" or better yet a 10" WF Beam. Are you considereing a center post??? I have concerns about it sagging. As others have said it is very important as to how you support the ends and in this case possibly the center. When I am at work tomorrow I will check my steel books for capacity.

 

Jay will know for sure, you need his number?

I am envious, I have had plans of doing one of these since I built our place.

 

I am an engineer and you haven't provided enuff info to calculate bending loads or support loads but a 6" beam (I beam ??) is a minimal structural component for the length you mention. Both of them welded together would be a better structural member. Your deck load above the beam will be the bigger load to minimize if you want to hoist stuff (engines, etc.) A safer bet is to put a support beam in the middle that can be removed if you want the open storage area.

 

That beam assuming it is a W6x12 (based on it having 1/4" flange) will carry an 8.3kips (8300 lbs) at L/360. Thats 754 lbs per 4'(half width of loft) or 188psf, which is well beyond the 60 (20 dead load and 40 Live Load) psf used in most buildings).

 

Kevin try this: Support both ends on some concrete blocks, then stand in the middle, how much does it bend? That's the most direct way to see if it will support you. That's a point loading. How many other rafters will you have? What's the spacing, size, etc. All those things go into a floor loading equation. But you'll have a pretty good idea by standing on it.

 

I was thinking the same thing about welding two together but like you said not enuff info here to be sure. I suspect he has a wide flange by the dimensions and not an I beam as well.

 

Civil engineer, and just pulled that from the AISC steel construction manual. Good to go man.

 

a 4" x 6" steel i beam should be fine

 

3.5" diameter with a .318" wall thickness column supports 67k's at 10' in height. So your columns are good to go to, actually treated 4x4's would work for the ends in the building as they will hold roughly 5k's.

 

8.3Kips for uniformly distributed load. For loft.

4Kips for Point Load. Gantry

 

Why has no one made mention of "webbing" this I-beam for higher structural value .... are we not hotrodders??? LOL

 

As a rigger/millwright I always have a load chart in my wallet. It says that a standard I beam, 6" tall @ 12.5 lbs/ft. with a 1/4" web can safely carry 1870 lbs. in the center of a 14' span. If you were to step up to an 8" beam with a 5/16" web, your capacity increases to 5330 lbs. at the center of a 14' span. 10" beam with 5/16" web is 11070 lbs. in the center at that span. I would go with an 8" or better because you know damn well that your going to store heavy stuff up there and hoist off it as well.

 

Kev, why don't ya just =TRUSS= the beam with 2" square tube mirroring the dimension of your rafters?[recommend adding a vertical support from top of beam to center/peak of truss...]
this should easily perform your tasks and really not interfere with the "loading area" of your loft..........

 

Assuming the beam isn't damaged or heavily pitted, etc. for an 8-foot deep area, you are good to go. If you plan to attach a hoist to the lower flange though, you might consider upsizing, or reinforcing it with a structural T or C-channel. Yes, I'm a registered Professional Engineer (mechanical).

 

If you drill the I-beam to lighten it, you probably won't need as heavy a post to hold it up, or thicker footings.

 

That would cost him some of the strength and he isn't really worried about the weight of the beam on the posts as that is negligible in this case but the load capacity for the beam when it holds the loft with the 14 ft span. We build lofts in our garage and pretty soon we figure out how to start loading heavy crap up there one cylinder head or box of old hot rod magazines at a time.

 

Pour footers for sure. If no one gives you numbers I have a table in one of my structural books here. I can dig it out.

You are not going to have 14 teenagers up ther dancing right? If it is storage and not living space that effects the loading.

 

I think he was tongue in cheek with that comment

 

Use Duraglass, it's stonger than Bondo.

 

To heavily paraphrase Mart from England..."at some point you have to be willing to trust your own worthless striped wild-ass guess at structural adequacy"...

I have on occasion in my life of poverty and desperate improvisation used some pretty scary and flimsy stuff to hold the far end of the chain hoist off of the ground...remember that if you are only heavily loading the thing while hoisting an engine, it is easy and cheap to stick in a couple of simple and temporary diagonal braces from ground to near the center of beam to add support near point of load. They can be knocked down and tossed in a corner once the engine is in, and then quickly put back twenty minutes later when you realize your throwout bearing is still on the workbench.
I would re-worry this differently...sounds like loft is partial, and being considered for light stuff.
My thought is that a car AT LEAST doubles in volume as it is taken apart, and I would want as much capacity up there as possible...full area, heavy plywood, add in extra wall studs and beams, use lots of screws. You want to be able to stash most of a car and be able to bring pieces up and down easily.
I heavily reinforced and floored by loft/attic area for this so I can stash almost anything up there, and went heavy-duty on stairs so that two people carrying a shortblock could get up there without too much fear...for the stairs I got two of the pre made notched stair sides, added stout planks, and hinged the whole mess up to with a piece of pipe run through stair sides and beams. The whole thing is dragged back up into the ceiling by a light duty rope pulley hoist.

 

To heavily paraphrase Mart from England..."at some point you have to be willing to trust your own worthless striped wild-ass guess at structural adequacy"...

I have on occasion in my life of poverty and desperate improvisation used some pretty scary and flimsy stuff to hold the far end of the chain hoist off of the ground...remember that if you are only heavily loading the thing while hoisting an engine, it is easy and cheap to stick in a couple of simple and temporary diagonal braces from ground to near the center of beam to add support near point of load. They can be knocked down and tossed in a corner once the engine is in, and then quickly put back twenty minutes later when you realize your throwout bearing is still on the workbench.
I would re-worry this differently...sounds like loft is partial, and being considered for light stuff.
My thought is that a car AT LEAST doubles in volume as it is taken apart, and I would want as much capacity up there as possible...full area, heavy plywood, add in extra wall studs and beams, use lots of screws. You want to be able to stash most of a car and be able to bring pieces up and down easily.
I heavily reinforced and floored by loft/attic area for this so I can stash almost anything up there, and went heavy-duty on stairs so that two people carrying a shortblock could get up there without too much fear...for the stairs I got two of the pre made notched stair sides, added stout planks, and hinged the whole mess up to with a piece of pipe run through stair sides and beams. The whole thing is dragged back up into the ceiling by a light duty rope pulley hoist.