AboutRichard Taylor, AIA Expertise Ask me about all aspects of house, remodeling. , and room addition design and construction. Ask me about historic homes, renovation, and restoration. Ask me about materials and techniques, and about how you can get the best value for your design and construction dollar. Ask me how you can make your home a very special place. I can't, however, answer specific structural engineering questions in this forum - that's something you'll need on-site observation for.
Experience I own a five-person residential architectural firm, and have been designing custom homes, remodelings, and room additions across the country since 1983. Check us out at Richard Taylor Architects and RTA Plans. I have written and been published extensively on the subject of residential architecture. .
Organizations American Institute of Architects, City of Dublin Architectural Review Board, Past Editor of SPLASH (a CAD program), Past Editor of Open Directory Project, Boy Scouts of America
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture) Miami University 1983
For more about home design, check out my blog at Richard Taylor Architects Looking for great Luxury Home House Plans? Try ours at RTA Plans.
Question I am designing a flat roof garage. It will ultimately be a green roof and I need to know of a source for the load bearing requirements due to snow in my state NJ. Also, where can I find data on load bearing capacities of both wood and steel beams for this application? I am looking for accredited sources for this information.
Answer Hi Robin - thanks for your question!
By "green roof" do you mean it will be planted? If so, the weight of the soil and water will have a far greater impact on the structure than the snow load.
Snow load minimums are specified in building codes. New Jersey probably uses the International Residential Code (IRC) which is the most common Model Code in the Eastern U.S. Your local government, however, may have increased local requirements for snow loads, so check with your building department first.
As far as the structural strength of wood and steel members, you'll need to work with several sources. First is the building code, which sets minimums for your building type, snow loading conditions, and area of the country.
For wood, structural values are set by several agencies; for plywood it's the APA (American Plywood Association) for dimensional lumber it's the AWC (American Wood Council). For engineered lumber, you can use the proprietary data supplied by the individual manufacturers for structural design.
Don't forget in your structural design to take into account the lateral bending of the wall structure as well as the "racking" forces on the walls. Lots of garage walls fail under heavy loading while the roofs stay intact.
It's easy to get in over your head in something like this if you don't have training and experience in structural design. If you get stuck, contact a local structural engineer or Architect for help.
Hope this helps!
Richard Taylor, AIA
www.rtastudio.com
www.rtaplans.com
