Garage Engineered Joists

[Erol Kartal]

The bolts in the cinder blocks are not staggered. Is staggering required in a garage like a deck? I'm concerned about sheer if we (ever) have a major snow. Yes I know about the lovely black stuff....

[Marcel R. Cyr]

Originally Posted by ekartal

The bolts in the cinder blocks are not staggered. Is staggering required in a garage like a deck? I'm concerned about sheer if we (ever) have a major snow. Yes I know about the lovely black stuff....

Erol, are you sure you know about that black stuff?

From an enginneering stand point, yes the ledger should be bolted with staggered orientation and galvaized anchors used and the spacing would be deteremined by the loading of. ? Size of the anchor bolts would also be determined by the loading.

This is all assummed that the block wall construction has two rows of bond beam blocks filled with at least 2500 psi grout. ha. ha.

Would reccommend further evaluation by a structural engineer or architect, dependant on the size of the structure. Can't see the whole picture.

Marcel

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

My understanding is that staggering the bolts prevents drilling bolt holes that align along the grain of the ledger, which could encourage splitting of the ledger along the grain line. The shear strength of the bolts is not effected by their location in the ledger.