Wood framed floor strong enough for a car?

[BX23D]

2x 4 are fine if they are supported by stone etc for their full length. Forget the 4x4 runners. A wood floor frame supported by packed crushed stone topped by 2x6's (rough sawn is best) would hold everything you want. Get rid of the span idea and think about the joist spacing.

 

[newbury]

Holy crap! That's one **** of a machine! I was planning on renting one of these:


They claim it can dig up to a 30" hole in heavy clay. I was worried that tree roots would have me breaking shear pins left and right-but maybe not?

Well, around my area that dingo plus auger costs about as much for a 1 day rental as the Post Hole Digger I bought at Agri-Supply. Do you even have a tractor?

 

[s219]

When I worked for a company that built sheds, we'd double-layer the plywood floor for people who wanted to store cars in them. Floors were usually framed with 2x6 on 12" centers.

As for the load under each wheel, it's actually equal to the tire PSI (assuming the tires are inflated within proper range). Convert to PSF by multiplying by 144.

 

[EddieWalker]

Don't screw around with it. Dig out your 16X24 foot hole 24X32 x three feet deep and backfill with clean sand or gravel capped with a foot of crushed stone and a concrete slab set high enough so the water drains away from it. Then you can build something on it that will last longer then your grandchildren. Most stumps are only 18 to 24 inches deep and the main roots usually are small enough to break with a back hoe bucket four feet from the trunk. Once you get the one in the center out the rest will come easy.

Good advice. If you are going to build a building and expect it to last, you need to do it right. Skids are for temporary and cheap. If you plan on moving in less then ten years, go for it. If you want to do it once and be there for decades, dig out the stumps, compact the fill and build something you will be proud of.

Stumps are a pain, but they come out with a little time. Dirt compacts. Use clean fill and compact it in lifts. Not knowing how big of a area you are talking about, this could be a weekend job or a couple weekends. In the grand scheme of things, that's nothing.

Eddie

 

[k0ua]

I used to park my L3400hst with FEL and Loaded tires and 750 lbs ballast barrel in my Derksen wooden floored building. 2x6 on 12 inch centers with 4x4 skids, the span is a little over 4 foot. 3/4 plywood floor but I put another 3/4 plywood over that myself for extra strength. It never even groaned. Lets see tractor is 2600 lbs, loader about another 1100 or so, Loaded tires about 500 lbs and 750 lbs of ballest.. lets see, about 4950, plus me... so well over 5000 lbs.

Treated Portable Garage | Derksen Portable Buildings

 

[ljnelson109]

Lots of places around here are advertising vehicle loads on the floors of the pre-fab garages. They all seem to have different approaches. The one I bought for the tractor is 4X4 skids, 2X4 joists on 8" centers and 5/8" plywood. I have no concerns parking the tractor on it, and would be willing to drive a vehicle if needed. Mine is only 12X24. Some of the other shops were doing 12" centers and 2 layers of plywood as others have mentioned.

As others have said, though, I would definitely favor a permanent building if I had the option. Concrete around here is quite pricey. The wooden floor is definitely cheaper. One other consideration though, if I was driving vehicles into the building, is grade. In order to ensure that the wood is not sitting in water all of the time, my building is sitting above grade. This results in the need for a ramp up to the floor (I used stone). For a tractor, this is a not a big deal. For vehicles, this can be a hassle.

Lee

 

[Looking4new]

In the garage I use for my Jeep, I laid 4x4's lengthwise and screwed 2x8's to them. The 4x4's are 3' apart and the 2x8's are laid on their flat sides with 1/2" between them for the snow and slush to have somewhere to go. The tractor sits on dirt right now, but that garage will get the same treatment this year.

 

[8N Ren]

When I worked for a company that built sheds, we'd double-layer the plywood floor for people who wanted to store cars in them. Floors were usually framed with 2x6 on 12" centers.

As for the load under each wheel, it's actually equal to the tire PSI (assuming the tires are inflated within proper range). Convert to PSF by multiplying by 144.

My buddy's old landlord did one just like this, when I helped him move last year it was around year 6-7 years that it had been there without issues. I was surprised there wasn't really much flex to it when I realized it was wood.

 

[BeezFun]

As for the load under each wheel, it's actually equal to the tire PSI (assuming the tires are inflated within proper range).

This is not correct. A few ways of seeing that without doing any analysis would be to ask what the load would be if the tires went flat while the car was parked there (the load would not change even though the tire pressure went to zero). Or, from a different perspective, I have a lawnmower and an SUV that have the same tire pressure, but one weighs about 400# and the other about 4000#.
There is a complex relationship between tire pressure, size of the tire, the rigidity of the tire material, and the resulting contact area of the tire. But the contact area is always relatively small, so the important thing is to know the weight distribution on each wheel, which comes from knowing the total weight and center of gravity of the vehicle.

 

[Mendonsy]

Don't screw around with it. Dig out your 16X24 foot hole 24X32 x three feet deep and backfill with clean sand or gravel capped with a foot of crushed stone and a concrete slab set high enough so the water drains away from it. Then you can build something on it that will last longer then your grandchildren. Most stumps are only 18 to 24 inches deep and the main roots usually are small enough to break with a back hoe bucket four feet from the trunk. Once you get the one in the center out the rest will come easy.

Good advice. If you are going to build a building and expect it to last, you need to do it right. Skids are for temporary and cheap. If you plan on moving in less then ten years, go for it. If you want to do it once and be there for decades, dig out the stumps, compact the fill and build something you will be proud of.

Stumps are a pain, but they come out with a little time. Dirt compacts. Use clean fill and compact it in lifts. Not knowing how big of a area you are talking about, this could be a weekend job or a couple weekends. In the grand scheme of things, that's nothing.

Eddie

Also there may be local building codes that apply. You don't want to get the whole thing built then have to do it over!