Name of Floor Framing System?

[Jim Katen]

Is there a name for the floor framing system in which you have large girders every so often and span between them with 2x6 boards, oriented vertically, and nailed next to one another like a ginormous horizontal glulam? 

[Chad Fabry]

I've seen it in old granaries with walls built of stacked (the flat way) 2x12's and floors of bins built the same way. I think the name of the system is "robust".

 

 

[leslie]

54 minutes ago, Chad Fabry said:

I've seen it in old granaries with walls built of stacked (the flat way) 2x12's and floors of bins built the same way. I think the name of the system is "robust".

I don't have hard reference, but have also heard it called robust. I will look in an old framing book I have. 

 

54 minutes ago, Chad Fabry said:

 

 

 

[Bill Kibbel]

I've seen it in a few mills, a couple old factories, a very large church, a large city hall,  and several timber bridges.

I don't know what they were called in early buildings but a phrase used in the mid - late 20th century is nail-laminated timber deck and nail-laminated lumber deck.  I've seen it in plans as NLT decking.

 

[Jim Katen]

Thanks. That's it. And, yes, it's certainly robust. 

I see it on most of the small bridges in my area and it's pretty commonly used as decking for elevated garage floors on steep-slope sites, but this was the first time I'd seen it used on a house - for both the floor and the roof. It was, well, robust. 

[Jerry Simon]

10 hours ago, Jim Katen said:

Thanks. That's it. And, yes, it's certainly robust. 

. . .used on a house - for both the floor and the roof. . .

I would think the wall framing would also have to be robust to support such a roof?

[Jim Katen]

In the structures that I've seen, the wall framing doesn't support it at all. The loads all run through very large beams and posts. On this house, the walls are just infill. 

In a few of the NLT construction articles that I've read since Bill's post, I see that some buildings use laminated timber walls to support the laminated timber decks. Also, most interestingly, crews are set to begin constructing a laminated timber high rise in Portland this year. I'll definitely be checking it out as it goes up: 

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2017/06/timber_high-rise_planned_in_pe.html

 

 

[Marc]

Here's an episode of Grand Designs featuring a house built with CLT.

Edited August 26, 2017 by Marc

[Jim Katen]

I guess they don't believe in handrails in Cornwall. . . 

[Jim Baird]

There is a fire station near here that has a wood framed floor like that.  It made it into historic preservation when a bigger building was built around it.

I knew an eccentric owner builder who formed his floor frame and poured it with concrete.  He did not include central HVAC and had a system of floor fans he move around to circulate heat from a wood furnace in the basement.

[Jim Katen]

Yeah. On this one, the floor supported 2" of concrete, in which was embedded copper tubing for radiant heating. It was a nice house. 

[RK52]

Saw one of these in downtown Seattle, in a Big-5 conversion. The assembled monstrosity was supported by large concrete pillars, block wall and posts. The buildings walls were brick. The conversion was within the basement and three stories above. As you go up a level, the supports become fewer. Very strange.