updates?

[gws]

I have a old carriage barn on my property.(see attached pix) Its 20ft deep and about 30ft wide and has a second story hay loft. Its most likley a 1920's vintage (maybe earlier) building. Its post and beam constructions. Full spanning timbers, No structural support inside. The barn is still in good shape but has proven to to be pretty useless. The lower section is to low and the upper section has just become a place to put junk.

I would like to raise the floor to give me a more traditional door height. Is it possible to build up a joist hung floor around a post and beam bulding without weakening it? I have 4 post evenly across the front and to attach my frame. Would 2 2x12 be enough to span 20ft? Maybe wood ibeams?

The floor is currently just above the door sliding rain in the photo.

 

[khd]

That's a nice little barn. I'm not quite sure what the building's purpose is intended to be with the new floor: wood\work shop, garage, tractor storage?

Regards,
Kevin

 

[gws]

I would like to turn it in to a garage. Its wide enough for our two vehicles but the ceiling is not high enough.

 

[Henro]

Gary,

I think what I would probably do is frame the inside with pressure treated lumber to the height that I wanted the floor to be.

I would then fill inside that framework with something. I doubt it would matter what fill was used, as it would stay dry and compact due to the roof being above it.

This would allow the existing posts to stay exposed to the air on the outside, and for all intents and purposes they would not realize that something inside the barn had changed.

There may be other, better ways to accomplish what you want. But I bet this approach would work pretty well for the long term...

YMMV, of course... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Edit: I take it that if you don't have clearance you are going to take the second floor out? If that is the case you need to consider what structural strenght that floor may be providing to the building...

 

[gws]

Henro,
That my who issue,I basicly want to put a new second floor in the barn then rip out the old floor thus giving me the headroom I need without removing the structural inside frame of the building.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

I don't suppose you could provide a picture of the inside, could you? It's hard to guess how it's constructed -- there are several methods and the answer to your question would depend on the how it is built.

Cliff

 

[mrcaptainbob]

Is your intent to raise the loft floor? Build a new loft floor to retain the storage of the barn 'attic' and also to provide the proper headroom. Sounds neat. I would think you could do that quite nicely. Probably mimick the existing method of attachement. Sure would be great to preserve that beauty!

 

[jim_wilson]

Take a look at the Weyerhauser Trus Joist site - they have all the specs there for the wooden I-Joists and all the other engineered lumber beams and such. I would think it would be relatively easy to add an I-Joist floor into your barn without disturbing the existing post and beam frame. It would really depend on how the internal structure was setup though. You can easily span 20ft. with a wooden I-joist - you just have to get the correct one for span.