is there enough structure?

[CjAl]

building a 20x32 story a a half with loft over 16' of the house.

on the open non loft side of the house my wife wants dual 6' french doors or french slider or dual sliders opening to the four season porch. either way it is two units 6' wide. on that wall i have 13' 4" (160") from the outside corner of the house to where the stairs start. it is on the 32' wall which has the rafter loads. my concern is if there is enough wood left for the structure. it basicly give me the end 2x6 stud, the inside corner sideways stud and another stud on one side of a door, two studs together, another door and two more studs before returning to 16" on center.

how do i calculate these loads to see if its enough?

[MountainDon]

A drawing would be nice as I find it easier to view a drawing rather than interpret words. Harder to make an error that way; with dimensions and a North arrow to make writing about it easier.

[UK4X4]

Well I'm no expert - but we have others here with way more knowledge and Don has helped hugely with what I've learnt, but I'll give you a start

They'll need the snow load for your area if you have one

Then you take half of the weight of the one side of the roof -plus the eave to give you the weight on that section of wall

ie half your roof span is 5 ft plus probably 2 ft for the overhang you can then calculate the weight on that wall

Live + snow +dead x area= total weight
If you want you can change that for linear lbs/ft

Then you have to look at the headers to support that weight- thats then divided for the posts holding them up

If you need to there are 5'5"patio doors too

I have two planed in a similar way to yours, but I started with the Truss design loads and worked down from there, I think I have triples on one door and double studs on the other

update
Just chcked my dwgs each doorway has one full length stud and 2 supporting the headers- 1 header is 2x10 and the other is an dual LVL as it takes a higher load from above, the two doors are 48" in from the side of the building and 28" apart

[CjAl]

i thought i put this in the general section.

we dont get any snow here. we do get some huricanes but its pretty rare they come this far inland. i am about two hours north of the gulf coast in s.e. tx.

also i have a ridge beam to carry some roof load.

i have the drawing i was just doodling. i will see if it will photograph.

[CjAl]

not much but it is to scale. each line is 16" though.

[Don_P]

It doesn't look like it, you'll need to compare it to the wall bracing section in the wall chapter, 6 I believe.

[CjAl]

i am not going to do it. i will do a single french and a regular entry door. i wouldnt be able to open all the doors anyways with them so close together. shes just going to have to settle on this one.

[Don_P]

Look down as you adjust, I believe you are on piers. The point loads created by the supports of large openings should fall over piers or the girders should be checked for a non uniform load.

[CjAl]

that was my big concern with the dual french doors. it would have brought my load down in the.middle between my piers. the way i decided to do it places a single 6' opening centered directly between two with the support coming down almost on top of them.

[Don_P]

Bingo