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: Garage Reinforcement Help Needed
: Garage Reinforcement Help Needed -- GTO Matt	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: Marky ® 05/04/2009, 08:22:46 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Hi Matt...welcome to the forum. New home...Congrats!!! I would protect my investment and consult with a professional that knows your town codes. Your town engineer could also provide some insight. Good Luck!!!

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: : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed
: : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed -- Marky	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: bpd ® 05/04/2009, 18:21:33 Author Profile eMail author Edit

If you do everything yourself I would take a look at using LVL's (plywood sandwich beams) and attach them to your trusses. Make sure that you reinforce at either end by putting a couple of 2x4 studs under each lvl in the stud wall, and nailing the 2x4's together. You could also use floor trusses (those funky wooden I-beams), as you will be using the area above your garage as a floor. If you do that don't forget to reinforce the 2x4 wall with a double plate on top, or ask a construction friend on perhaps increasing the frequency of the 2x4's instead. Good luck

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: : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed
: : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed -- bpd	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: zekeman ® 05/05/2009, 11:12:17 Author Profile eMail author Edit

This is NOT a DIY project. A structural engineer or PE should be consulted to do it safely.

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: : : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed
: : : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed -- zekeman	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: bpd ® 05/05/2009, 11:55:06 Author Profile eMail author Edit

I guess I don't see that you need an engineer for this. There are a lot of off the shelf and semi off the shelf solutions for spanning 25 ft with significant weight, as nowadays a significant number of houses have this situation for the floor. There are a significant number of houses that have these type of trusses on spans significantly larger (I know my parents house has a 40 ft span with a basic truss) they just ordered from a truss company. I would recommend a reputable construction contractor, as they will know the off the shelf solutions. If you hire an engineer, they would probably want you to hire a contractor anyway, and you would end up in it a lot more dough.

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: : : : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed
: : : : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed -- bpd	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: jboggs ® 05/05/2009, 12:48:42 Author Profile eMail author Edit

When you tell someone how to do something, you are also accepting the responsibility that it will work (no matter how they build it) and that it will be legal. There is no way you can know ALL the details (and local code requirements) necessary to recommend a solution with nothing more than a forum post to go on. That's why structural questions like this (which potentially involve human safety) are always answered this way. Check with a local professional. I once started to tell my brother-in-law how I would support an open span in his basement, but then I thought again about the potential results and decided to just not say anything.

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: : : : : : Garage Reinforcement Help Needed -- jboggs	Post Reply	Top of thread	Engineering Forum

Posted by: bpd ® 05/05/2009, 13:36:04 Author Profile eMail author Edit

jboggs, Your point is well taken. I tried to moderate my views based on my second response, talking about using off the shelf solutions that have been pre-engineered for what seems like a fairly common and repeatable problem. I guess what I am trying to say in my second response that a problem this common has probably already been engineered away and a reputable construction contractor would know the pre-engineered solutions, where the engineering costs could be spread over thousands of installations and might save him some dough without compromising the safety of the building. I agree that my first response was a little less well thought out, based on safety issues and me not knowing his circumstances.

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