Hi all,

I'm in the process of building a brewery in an industrial unit. As part
of the build I want to put in an office and store room which I intend to
build with plasterboard faced studwork with insulation.

To make the most of the ceiling heigh in the unit I want to use the roof
of the office and store room for storage of ingredients and other supplies.

I have no worries about putting the studwork up but was wondering if
someone could advise what size timber would be best and at what centres.

Cheers!

"Richard Conway" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

I'm in the process of building a brewery in an industrial unit. As part
of the build I want to put in an office and store room which I intend to
build with plasterboard faced studwork with insulation.

To make the most of the ceiling heigh in the unit I want to use the roof
of the office and store room for storage of ingredients and other
supplies.

I have no worries about putting the studwork up but was wondering if
someone could advise what size timber would be best and at what centres.

Cheers!

For safety reasons, it would be best to use steel columns in the walls and
steel beams across if you intend storing stuff above where people are going
to be working.

You'd need to get someone to look at the plans / drawings / whatever.

Simply building a framework of timber with timber joists and storing
possibly heavy stuff on top is asking for a disaster regardless of timber
size.

It may be cheaper to build the side walls from concrete block and then D&D,
this way, the timber ceiling / floor joists are on something solid

On 22/07/15 18:52, Phil L wrote:

For safety reasons, it would be best to use steel columns in the walls and
steel beams across if you intend storing stuff above where people are going
to be working.

You'd need to get someone to look at the plans / drawings / whatever.


+1 to that.

This is not a studwork wall making a domestic loft a "bit stronger" so
the OP can store more books or whatever.

It sounds like the ingredients (which are likely to be dense) could add
up to a very substantial weight.

To the OP:

You know the layout and your ingredients. If I were you I would plan how
much stuff you could store up there, floor to ceiling[1] - then estimate
the weight based on the most dense ingredient (eh drums of liquid).

Then engage a structural engineer to design to that.

It need not cost a fortune - but it would be unwise to skimp. Even if
you now want to only cover the floor with product, your or someone else
will come along later and add floor to ceiling dexian and fill it right up.

There is no reason why what you want could not be built from timber, after all there are many examples of timber framed buildings capable of supporting people, furniture and a lot more. I do agree you need to get someone to design the structure and work out all the static and dynamic forces that the structure may be subject to.

One suggestion though is it might be easier to have the office at height using the space below for your storage requirements. It seems to me a wasted effort humping stuff up only to bring it down again when required, unless you need it at height for the production process.

Richard

On 22/07/2015 19:50, Tim Watts wrote:
On 22/07/15 18:52, Phil L wrote:

For safety reasons, it would be best to use steel columns in the walls
and
steel beams across if you intend storing stuff above where people are
going
to be working.

You'd need to get someone to look at the plans / drawings / whatever.


+1 to that.

This is not a studwork wall making a domestic loft a "bit stronger" so
the OP can store more books or whatever.

It sounds like the ingredients (which are likely to be dense) could add
up to a very substantial weight.

To the OP:

You know the layout and your ingredients. If I were you I would plan how
much stuff you could store up there, floor to ceiling[1] - then estimate
the weight based on the most dense ingredient (eh drums of liquid).

Then engage a structural engineer to design to that.

It need not cost a fortune - but it would be unwise to skimp. Even if
you now want to only cover the floor with product, your or someone else
will come along later and add floor to ceiling dexian and fill it right up.


+1.

The "malt store" of my local brewery is in the "loft" (it is on the side
of a hill so there is level access to this floor). It was designed in
Victorian times as a brewery and relies largely on gravity to move the
ingredients and product!

Basically easy enough to estimate the weight you could be storing, hence
the floor loading, hence the joist dimensions and spacing. As others
have said, you need someone like a structural engineer to do the sums.
Steel framing or load bearing block walls might well be the cheapest way
to do it.

On 22/07/2015 19:50, Tim Watts wrote:
On 22/07/15 18:52, Phil L wrote:

For safety reasons, it would be best to use steel columns in the walls
and
steel beams across if you intend storing stuff above where people are
going
to be working.

You'd need to get someone to look at the plans / drawings / whatever.


+1 to that.

This is not a studwork wall making a domestic loft a "bit stronger" so
the OP can store more books or whatever.

It sounds like the ingredients (which are likely to be dense) could add
up to a very substantial weight.

To the OP:

You know the layout and your ingredients. If I were you I would plan how
much stuff you could store up there, floor to ceiling[1] - then estimate
the weight based on the most dense ingredient (eh drums of liquid).

Then engage a structural engineer to design to that.

It need not cost a fortune - but it would be unwise to skimp. Even if
you now want to only cover the floor with product, your or someone else
will come along later and add floor to ceiling dexian and fill it right up.
Could you buy in a "standard" mezzanine floor unit and then build your
office in the space underneath ?

On 7/22/2015 5:35 PM, Richard Conway wrote:
Hi all,

I'm in the process of building a brewery in an industrial unit. As part
of the build I want to put in an office and store room which I intend to
build with plasterboard faced studwork with insulation.

To make the most of the ceiling heigh in the unit I want to use the roof
of the office and store room for storage of ingredients and other supplies.

I have no worries about putting the studwork up but was wondering if
someone could advise what size timber would be best and at what centres.

You need to know the likely load of what you are storing. There is no
reason a timber call can't be load bearing, but it does need to be
designed for the load in question.


--
Cheers,

John.

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Thanks all for the suggestions. I guess I was thinking of storing
pretty lightweight stuff up there but point taken as I guess someone
else (or even me later down the line!) could end up putting a load of
stuff up there without thinking.

Concrete block sounds like a good option I hadn't thought of. I also
hadn't thought of putting the office above which could be a really good
idea and has made me think that a mezzanine over one whole side of the
unit could be a really good way to increase my floorspace.

I happen to know a chartered structural engineer - about time I took him
out and bought him a pint I reckon

On 22/07/2015 21:07, Tricky Dicky wrote:
There is no reason why what you want could not be built from timber,

after all there are many examples of timber framed buildings capable of

supporting people, furniture and a lot more. I do agree you need to get

someone to design the structure and work out all the static and dynamic

forces that the structure may be subject to.

One suggestion though is it might be easier to have the office at

height using the space below for your storage requirements. It seems to

me a wasted effort humping stuff up only to bring it down again when

required, unless you need it at height for the production process.

Richard