Should Floor Beams Be 10 Or 12

Common single floors include second story floors or floors over a basement.

Should floor beams be 10 or 12.

A live load of 60 pounds per square foot demands more support and shorter spans. You should check with your local building department for construction requirements in your area. A 3 ply with 2 x 10s would mean that three 2 x 10s are. If a floor needs to support more than common items you may choose to reinforce the floor by spacing joists closer together.

One more thing we did a house a while back for a civil engineer. The full table shows more lumber sizes. Above the beam is open it is a large bedroom about 16x14 cape style house so it has low ceilings on the ends. 2 grade of douglas fir are indicated below.

He spec d a triple 2x12 beam with 1 2 osb between the 2x12 s. 1 psf lb f ft 2 47 88 n m 2. But larger is not always better when builders are constructing a home or adding a room addition. Use an lvl span size chart for a single floor by finding the size range of lvl beams you are using and the space between the floor s support columns.

Dead load weight of structure and fixed loads 10 lbs ft 2. 1 ft 0 3048 m. The information included in these charts is derived from the international residential code 2012. The extra two inches of vertical distance when a floor is framed with 2 x 10 joists rather than 2 x 12s can be quite important for example.

It was only spanning about 10 and was only supporting a floor. Because these floors support the lightest loads they require the fewest support columns and the smallest lvl beams. The bigger you make your deck the more you ask of the framing timbers that hold up the deck s structure and the joists and beams that support the. This span table excerpt shows two possible sizes of built up floor beams 2 x 10 and 2 x 12.

Our joist span charts are for wood joists with a maximum dead load of 10 pounds per square foot and a live load of 40 pounds per square foot. Live load is weight of furniture wind snow and more. Maximum floor joist span for no. Recommended beam joist spans for deck framing.

We did not question him on his own house but when we were finished the beam deflected so bad 3 4 that it cracked his sheetrock. Douglas fir 2 by 10 joists graded as structural select allows joist spans up to 21 feet for a live load of 30 pounds per square foot when spaced 12 inches apart 19 feet 1 inch for 16 inch spacing and 16 feet 8 inches for 24 inch spacing. Common sense tells you that large floor joists can carry more load and spacing joists closer together also increases the load bearing capacity of a floor.