Hi people, i'm completely new to this forum, but certainly not a stranger to on line forums of various other sorts.
I have finally developed my small home business enough to have moved out of my garage into a small warehouse unit. I'm no stranger to DIY around the home, but this will be a serious project for me to complete over the next month or so of evenings.
The space i have at the moment is almost a perfect cube, measuring 7.94m (26ft) x 7.27m (just under 24ft) x 4.6 metres (15 feet) tall.
I've quickly come to the conclusion that i need a lot more space.
a. i can't afford any more.
b. i have 2 metres of wasted height.
I know that i will not be able to make 2 floors with workable height, but my plan is to leave the lower level with an 8 or 9 foot ceiling height thus making a low height office (will only be sat down at computer anyway) and then storage space up above.
A friend of mine has enough mezzanine floor left over from his barn project that he is giving me. I am getting 6 upright posts to support 6 x 13foot Steel RSJ cross beams.
Here comes my first question, there will be a 3.5 metre gap between the RSJ beams, can i use 4"X2" wooden beams to bridge this sort of gap, then use tongue and groove chipboard flooring on top of that?
What sort of spacing should i have between the beams? I had a guess at 50 cm between each 4"x2" beam, will this be sufficient? As i said before, all my heavy equipment will be on the ground floor, this will just be light storage and a small office for me.
Should i forget wood completely and get on the hunt for some decently priced galvanised cross beams to bolt to the steel rsj's? That's what my mate did in his bran, but he has no more of the long galvanised beams.
Sorry for the perhaps seemingly obvious questions. I have a good mechanical background and have done plenty of home DIY, but not much construction of this type.
I welcome any views, comments, suggestions or just plain answers.
I have finally developed my small home business enough to have moved out of my garage into a small warehouse unit. I'm no stranger to DIY around the home, but this will be a serious project for me to complete over the next month or so of evenings.
The space i have at the moment is almost a perfect cube, measuring 7.94m (26ft) x 7.27m (just under 24ft) x 4.6 metres (15 feet) tall.
I've quickly come to the conclusion that i need a lot more space.
a. i can't afford any more.
b. i have 2 metres of wasted height.
I know that i will not be able to make 2 floors with workable height, but my plan is to leave the lower level with an 8 or 9 foot ceiling height thus making a low height office (will only be sat down at computer anyway) and then storage space up above.
A friend of mine has enough mezzanine floor left over from his barn project that he is giving me. I am getting 6 upright posts to support 6 x 13foot Steel RSJ cross beams.
Here comes my first question, there will be a 3.5 metre gap between the RSJ beams, can i use 4"X2" wooden beams to bridge this sort of gap, then use tongue and groove chipboard flooring on top of that?
What sort of spacing should i have between the beams? I had a guess at 50 cm between each 4"x2" beam, will this be sufficient? As i said before, all my heavy equipment will be on the ground floor, this will just be light storage and a small office for me.
Should i forget wood completely and get on the hunt for some decently priced galvanised cross beams to bolt to the steel rsj's? That's what my mate did in his bran, but he has no more of the long galvanised beams.
Sorry for the perhaps seemingly obvious questions. I have a good mechanical background and have done plenty of home DIY, but not much construction of this type.
I welcome any views, comments, suggestions or just plain answers.
