30' x 30' second story floor span

[mlrtime]

I am helping a church to design a gymnasium. They will build this in a metal building. one end of the building will have a 40' x 65' area with a kitchen, restrooms and a classroom on the first floor and a full class room on the second floor with a 5' walkway that overlooks the basketball court. My problem is trying to find out the sructure for the second story floor. What size beam should I use and what should be the spacing.

 

[Trussdoc]

My first suggestion is to find a friendly structural engineer who may do some "pro bono" work for the church; you will probably need sealed drawings for the local authorities.

Secondly, the information you provided is not sufficient to size a joist for the second floor. The loading in the corridor area will be fairly heavy, 100 to 125 psf, depending on your code.

You may want to consider making some of the walls on the first floor bearing walls, which would involve thickening the slab. This would significantly reduce the size and cost of the floor joists by reducing the spans.

 

[JAE]

Agree with Trussdoc - get a structural engineer.

 

[haynewp]

I would talk to Butler (

http://www.butlermfg.com

), Varco (

http://www.vp.com

)etc. and get an estimate from them to do the design and supply the building. You will still have to get an engineer to do the foundations however.