Build Your Own House

At our family mansion on the wooded estate (big tin shed in the bush), I think that instead of a full length carport on the side, it would be better if the first section of it was a deck.

The view isn't that great, but it does overlook the area I'm slowly establishing a decorative/flower garden, and through a gap in the trees down the slope to the area I'm preparing to plant a few fruit trees, and then onto the west boundry where I've planted lots of native trees to screen off the road there. When I finish clearing the brush near the dam a view of part of it too. The view in the other 3 directions is nothing but big trees.

I think that it is pretty safe to say the carport uprights/bearers/joists are not strong enough, so what should I replace them with (steel, for termite and fire purposes).

The carport is 3.5m wide, and if I replace/reinforce the first 2 pair of upright (would adding another pair in the middle be advised?), what size should they be (2.4 high to the deck). What size bearers (3.5m between each pair of uprights). And what size joists (3.3m between first/second pair of uprights, or if another set of uprights/bearer is in the middle 1.66m times 2). For the deck itself I'm looking at thickcompressed fibro (which I believe means .45m between joists.), painted with a boat deck paint.

thanks to anybody who can help
Ian

Steel is tricky. There is no construction standard for steel which is equivalent to the AS1684 timber framing standard so all steel structures need to be certified by an engineer. Sometimes it would be good to be able to work out the structure before going to an engineer to determine whether or not a design is viable, but it is hard to get hold of span tables. The only tables I know of are for OneSteel's Duragal system. Unfortunately the Duragal system uses tube and I would normally use C-Section, but it can be useful to give you an idea. Lots of good details on fixings, footings etc in their brochure too.

Brochure: http://www.onesteel.com/images/db_images/productspecs/DFS%20Brochure.pdf
Span tables: http://www.onesteel.com/images/db_images/productspecs/DFS%20Span%20Tables.pdf

If anyone knows of span tables for C-Section or UBs I would love to see a link.

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Bruce
Draftie

Thanks for those, and I looked at the site and found some other stuff too.

Ian