20x40 1/2 story: 2x12 beams

Started by cphillips, July 23, 2012, 11:25:06 AM

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cphillips

Hello! We're making great progress on the house. Our blog is: thistlecreekhouse.blogspot.com.

We are having some difficulty getting the stairs to fit, though, because of code requirements. Now it seems that the only solution is to move the 2x12 beams in the great room. How critical is it that the beams be 4 feet apart? Could two of them be 6 feet apart?

We will not be building a floor over that part of the house. We do have a loft over the bathroom/bedroom and we added another bedroom and mudroom on the back so that loft is over that part, too. So, the 2x12's are there for structural integrity. Also, we're not quite sure how to support the stair landing.

Is that enough information? I'm not the building, just the messenger, so I apologize if I haven't given you enough to go on. Thanks in advance for your help.

Cathy

John Raabe

If you are spanning the full 19' width you need 2x12 at 16" o/c not 24" (see sheet 5). You can double frame (double 2x12 at sides and header) around the stair opening. See example on sheet 3. If you are doing a full 48" span with 2x6 T&G decking for the floor, I would suggest upgrading the beams to 6x12 solid or 3-2x12's.
None of us are as smart as all of us.


cphillips

John:

Thanks for your very prompt reply.  Let me explain a little more...

The beams of concern are in the great room, where there is no loft and the room is open to the cathedral ceiling. Because we changed the stairs for code, the head clearance from stair #3 to beam #4 is just too short.  So we were considering moving the exposed beams (#1-4) 2' toward the front of the house, which would make the spacing between the 4th and 5th beams about 6'.  Is there any problem with this one set of beams having a larger spacing?

Thanks again for your assistance and for hosting this forum.  It's really helpful.

Cathy