What sort of fastening should I use to attach a ledger board to the inside wall of a post and beam barn building (130 year old barn) to support floor joists for the second floor? The 25 foot long ledger board (a 2×10) will have 17 joists attached to it (2x10s, 16″oc) with joist hangers. The barn wall has exposed, uneven, roughly 4×5 studs and three 8×8 main posts. The current plan is to use framing nails and 5/8 x 5″ lag screws to attach the ledger board to these posts and studs (attaching to the uneven studs will require some spacers). The joists span a 12′ simple span which will support a typical plywood and hardwood floor (this will be occassional-use living-type space). Does this sound like the right idea?
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-Kevin Ware
Replies
belt and suspendes approach, would be let the 2x10 INTO the post, or atleast another 2x vertically scabbed to the post..
but your plan sounds pretty rugged.
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I don't see how you could you get enough nails and lag bolts into a ledger board to be able to support the weight you'd need to support.
Sounds like you've got roughly a 12' by 20' area. At 55 PSF, that's a 13,200# design load.
Obviously, only half that will go to the side where the ledger is - roughly 6,600#. Spread that over something like 5 (?) posts and you have to connect for roughly 1,320# per post.
A single ledger board probably won't even cover that.
I refuse to be intimidated by reality anymore. What is reality? Nothing but a collective hunch. [Lily Tomlin]