Is 3 - 2X10s stronge enought for a 10 ft long ridge beam?

[Willy]

I want to get rid of part of a wall in my loft area. The wall is realy a outside wall and I am going to add my porch roof to the open space. The building design is a shed roof type so the long rafter side realy does not change just what it is sitting on, on one end. The removed wall space opening is 10 ft long  out of 24 ft total length and has a 12-12 roof 6 ft long on one side and a 5-12 roof 12 ft long on the other. My thought is to replace this wall with a tripple 2X10 Beam supported at each end with posts built up with 4- 2X6s inside another wall which will be above piers on the main floor. The rafters are 2X8s that will attach to the beam on the sides with hangers. The floor below will be 18'-2X8s going full length accross and attaching to the rafters & outside walls with 6 ft of head room at the beam and no pony walls. So the rafters will make a triangle shape and I do not want collar ties to take up more head room. Under this 2X8 floor will be 4 walls supporting them with no more than a 6 ft span each. On the long rafters they will be supported at one point with a short wall under them in the loft area 5 ft in from a outside wall which is also above a wall below. I hope this discription makes sence? Mark

[Willy]

Just as a point the second floor of my home in the middle is supported by a single glue lam that is 3"X12" in size spaning a 12 ft long space holding up 24 ft long floor joists. My roof is a 6/12 pitch this seems like a lot more weight then just the roof I want to hold up on the cabin. I don't want to deal with this change with the inspector as he seems to not care about my change I made raising the roof but when I gave him the pictures the roof was supported by a long wall not a header 10 ft long in this space. I am just removing some studs and putting a header in place of them. Mark

[glenn kangiser]

Usually rule of thumb is an inch of header per foot of opening so 2x10 triple should work, but I bet Don has more accurate numbers than this.

[mvk]

Mark
My old framing book says a 6x10 built up beam on a 10' span can be used as a girder in basement suporting 2 floors a little over 7000lbs. so thats 4 pieces of 2x10 no plywood filch plate back then. And I remember doing a couple of kit houses that used a solid fir 4x12  ridge beam and suported 12'. I would not be worried at all about what you plan. Would like to see some one who knew do the math though. With the usally dis-clamers of course proffesonal driver closed course do not try this at home! 

No spell check here at work! o boy.

[ScottA]

Acording to my handy dandy US Government published chart a double 2x10 header supporting roof only will span 10' assuming a 10' tributary load. So I guess this means basicly 10'x10' of roof area. So if this header is holding half of a 20' wide roof you are good. If it's holding a floor and a roof it will span 8'. Information source is listed as: Derived from Table 602.6 of the 1995 International Code Council's One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code.

I've heard 3 2xwhatever is equal to 2 2xthe next larger size so 3-2x10 would equal 2- 2x12 YMMV- Don't sue me if your house falls down etc.

[Willy]

Acording to my handy dandy US Government published chart a double 2x10 header supporting roof only will span 10' assuming a 10' tributary load. So I guess this means basicly 10'x10' of roof area. So if this header is holding half of a 20' wide roof you are good. If it's holding a floor and a roof it will span 8'. Information source is listed as: Derived from Table 602.6 of the 1995 International Code Council's One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code.

I've heard 3 2xwhatever is equal to 2 2xthe next larger size so 3-2x10 would equal 2- 2x12 YMMV- Don't sue me if your house falls down etc.

OK that sounds good to me. It realy is only supporting a 6 ft long roof on one section and a 12 ft long roof that has a wall under it 7 ft from this beam. The 12 ft wide roof was designed to be held up with out this wall at 7 ft but I added it in the loft to end the sharp angle of the floor. It is not realy spaning 10 ft either cause 12 inches of it is on top of posts so the true open span is 9 ft. If I get busted for some reason I can allways put a post under the middle of it but don't think this will be a problem. The designed wall that held it up before was just 2X4s on 16" centers and I went with 2X6 on 16" centers