Expanded 20x30 1.5

[joepittsburgh]

Thank you to everyone.  This site and forum was a key reason we finally had the courage to purchase a small piece of land on a creek in western PA.  The septic permit has been issued, the road is getting cut in next week (major project since the access is pretty soft).  Elecctric conduit comes with the road work then we shut down until spring.

We purcahsed John's 20x30 1.5 plan this week but due to our family size (5 kids) and my wife's vision of hosting friends and family, we are planning on a much larger version.  The core house will be 20x32 or 36 but the all sides will have "porches" with 3 sides closed in nd the fourth side being screened in.  I will try to post images of the current thinking at the bottom of this post.

Questions:
1 - For the porches (14 feet wide), I was simply going to add another set foundation piers (to correct length) on each side.  I am assuming since the porches will carry less weight than the core 20x32 house, John's post and pier design should be fine.  Comments?
2 - For the beams for the porches, we need to figure how we are going attach them to the core.  I was simply going to set them on top of the 12 foot sides walls in John's plan.  Comments \ advice?  What size beams will I need to span 14 feet (pitch will be 4/12 to 5/12 neighborhood).

More to Come...Thanks for any help.

[John Raabe]

Joe:

Here is one structural layout that could work. I have assumed the screen porch has the same floor level as the interior spaces and can use the same joist system.



You are adding additional weight to the floor girders and installing some new beams in the additions so I would suggest you have a review locally to size those beams to local snow and wind conditions. This will probably save you some money and time since there are several places in your load path where just duplicating the main house beam and pier layout will be overkill (and others where it will be underkill!)

[joepittsburgh]

Thanks John.  Good advice to get a local review.  I'll let everyone know what we find out.