Hello all,

I'm in the planning stages of renovating an old 19x20 carriage barn on our property, ideally for use as a garage, among other things, something akin to Jack Sobon's "Saltbox Garage" from his book Timber Frame Construction, p. 171, but smaller in footprint. It's 20' across the front, where I would install a pair of garage doors.

My main concern is sizing the beams/joists for the main floor. I'm familiar with some basic engineering principles, and have taken the Design/Joinery class at Heartwood awhile back, but I'm not sure how to resolve the point loads associated with parking a vehicle on the floor (nothing commercial, just personal vehicles). I'd be using EWP, #2BTR at least, and can add footings/sleepers as necessary to support floor beams. I was considering using 2 supporting beams (@ 6'4" on center) across the 20' dimension to keep the joists smaller. Of course, a concrete floor would solve everything, but is cost prohibitive for me at this time, and wouldn't be a solution.

Any help/insight/a-point-in-the-right-direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Audi Pauliukonis

Audi:
If you're concerned about the point load of the vehicle on the floor, just put the sleepers under the wheel path, so that the loads will be properly supported.

Welcome to the Forum Audi.

Thanks, Jim - I got to over-thinking the thing a bit, and didn't see the obvious solution. I appreciate it.

Thanks for the welcome, Dave.