Pole building loft

[Dragster Racer]

I am building a 40 by 40 by 15 tall shop pole building. I would like to have a storage loft along one wall, making it 40 ft long and perhaps 10 ft wide. Now the kicker..I would like to span as far as safely possible without support from the floor to keep the floor open to drive cars under and work and not run into the supports. How far can I go? Are there any plans or standards for this? I am unsure about supporting from the trusses. Seems like that would stress them beyond what they are meant for. It will be just for storage, and could probably be a bit narrower, like 8 ft.

 

[comp]

how much weight you going to have up there ,, that will make a difference to

 

[Dragster Racer]

I plan to have my air compressor and then some racks for storage. Not looking to store engine blocks up there since they would be heavy to get up the stairs. I am doing some figuring, and I may go narrower yet, but that won't help bridge the long span. I could even not span the entire length. I hate to scrimp on storage though.

 

[Bevis]

going that long, I think you are gonna need some suport from the ground, even though you want to stay away from that.

 

[kbs2244]

If you don’t want vertical supports, go with 45 degree supports going from the edge of the loft back to the wall posts.
The limiting thing here is how far apart are those wall posts?
I would expect at least 10 feet, and that is a lot to bridge with any kind of load in the loft.
I would look into pallet racking. They are typically 4 feet deep with an 8 foot span between the uprights. They are self supporting an strong as heck. You could put entire engines on them with no worries.
Check e-ebay or Craigslist.

 

[NWOhioChevyGuy]

The pole building where I grew up in had a storage loft over where we kept the work benches and stuff it was 8' deep by 16' long and we simply had it lagged to the poles at the wall and then hung from the rafters at the outer edge.

That being said we kept light stuff up there, seasonal storage, lawn tools, etc.

But before you build something like this you would want to confirm you rafters are designed to hold the weight you plan to hang.

 

[Vicious_Cycle]

I achieved pretty much what you're looking for by going with gambrel trusses:

 

[Dragster Racer]

I should have been more specific. I do want the loft on the wall, but the outer supports are the ones I am trying to avoid. I'm not going heavy, but you know how that goes sometimes. The shelves would be along the wall, so most weight is there. Still thinking. I would hang from the trusses, but I know they weren't designed for that. Might be ok. could do some diagonals.

 

[readhead]

You could span across the building with a couple of steel beams and place a beam between the first two. Frame a floor, no posts. If the beams are sized properly you could use them for hoist beams.

 

[offroadrunner1]

If you get a chance look at the loft build in my signature. My loft is 8 x 40 and it only has 1 support across that length. I did however add 1 more support but that was only necessary to make a caged in room.

 

[theoldwizard1]

... I would like to have a storage loft along one wall, making it 40 ft long and perhaps 10 ft wide. Now the kicker..I would like to span as far as safely possible without support from the floor to keep the floor open to drive cars under and work and not run into the supports.

You can go the full 40' but you'll probably have to use steel beams ! Realistically, 20-24'

Whatever you do, do NOT simply lag the ledger to the posts. The ledger need to have 2x4s spaced 16" O.C. under the ledger down to a footer attached to the floor. Use joist hanger and the appropriate screws.

 

[Cave Creek Ray]

DR,

Don't get suckered into the cheap route with your pole barn...

A buddy in Ohio bought a place with a nice pole barn and workshop. Problem is, the poles are just stuck into the ground. No footings and no stem walls! The entire building is sinking into the ground (hard Ohio clay but gooey in the rain and snow melts). The metal edging is crinkling as the building goes down. Evidently, this is a common problem out there.

There is a fix for this problem but it costs a lot more than doing the job right in the first place.

Just a heads up.

Ray

 

[joshgn]

I have a 40ft wide x 20 deep clearspan loft...I used a 3 ply 16in LVL..

http://s1100.photobucket.com/user/JoshGN/library/Mezz