LVL BEAM SPAN TABLE FULL

I adapted a 'cherry-picker.' I'll post that up in a new thread. I even went as-far as-to buy a short-web I-beam with the idea to bolt it to the underside of the box beam at the ridge, but I discovered that between the I-beam girder, the trolley, and the rigging, I would lose precious headroom, and be unable to lift much over 3' in height onto the loft deck.

If it was an I-beam girder I could use an overhead trolley on the lower surface flange of the beam, but due to the box construction, that was out. One concession I made to getting heavy things up & down to/from the loft, I thought about what would make an easy load-lifter? The roof ridge beam is also a 1/2' wall thickness box beam with plates welded to it for the ceiling joists. For access, I use an A-frame ladder, but since it's used for storage, it's not an everyday trip I make. The structure has no stairs to access the loft, not-even an attic 'pull-down' stairs.

The beam is sandwiched on both sides by a 2' x10' (ripped to 8' to match the box beam dimension) wood beam to allow easier attachment of the loft floor joists, which are 2' x 8' & 18' o.c. The engineer did the calcs and gave us a front-of-the loft steel box beam, 1/2' wall thickness, 4' x 8' welded into steel flitch plates cast into the masonry side walls. We used a structural engineer, and I asked for a capacity capable of supporting the weight of multiple motorcycles. The garage is a nominal 20' x 22' & the loft is a nominal 13' x 22'. That's all we could afford to do, we kept the same roof instead of bumping it higher.

LVL BEAM SPAN TABLE FULL

I had built a loft which isn't full height above my two-car garage.

Lvl beam span table