Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
(OP)
With all the talk about cantilevered wood balconies, I figured I'd post some photos of the balcony at the condo I'm staying at.
Looks to ne that they have 2x12's @ 12" OC inside and cantilevered half of them out for the balcony. Then used 2x12's in between. Cant imagine they carry much moment. Cantilever is about 6ft.
The part I dont like is where they have 7 cantilevered joists that stop at the face of the building. It seems very suspect to me. The connection is just a shear connection (see attached).
Looks to ne that they have 2x12's @ 12" OC inside and cantilevered half of them out for the balcony. Then used 2x12's in between. Cant imagine they carry much moment. Cantilever is about 6ft.
The part I dont like is where they have 7 cantilevered joists that stop at the face of the building. It seems very suspect to me. The connection is just a shear connection (see attached).






RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
rest of photos.
I dont like that bump out where they are cantilevered without continuous wood joists. Its not a moment connection and making a moment connection with wood is hard without steel straps.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
I'm just curious whose bright idea it was to csntilever those 7 joints in that way at the bump out.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
Reading your questions and answers on previous threads it is clear you're knowledgeable, but thoughts like this "...just curious whose bright idea it was to cantilever those joists..." can overshadow your technical know how. Just because you don't immediately understand how something has come together you shouldn't jump to the conclusion that the other guy must be wrong. Just some friendly advice from one young engineer to another. I have caught myself in the same line of thinking and it is not productive.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
Hmm I overlooked the loadpath in my haste to grab my pitchfork. I'm a little more wary about balconies since the Berkeley incident. Not sure if the single 2x's could handle the extra load from the header.
It was also a "hey heres a balcony at the ocean, hows she look". There are positives. All the joists are exposed so you can see any damage easier. The short pieces seem to be preservative treated. I can't tell if the lonner joists are. The hangars seem to be galvanized. Theres caulking on at the continuous just interface with the blocking.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
I like to debate structural engineering theory -- a lot. If I challenge you on something, know that I'm doing so because I respect your opinion enough to either change it or adopt it.
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
Good to see some white metal flashing along the wall. Better if it turned down and had spaces to allow drainage and drying between the flashing and the deck boards. Even better if it turns up and under the sliding glass door sills.
If the loads at the bump outs were designed to be picked up by adjacent cantilevered joists, you would think they would double or triple the joists. The joist hangers don't look like they have much capacity to resist wind uplift loads during the next hurricane.
As "Triangled" indicated, the exterior rim boards are not supporting the joists (except at the intermediate joists and the bump outs). The rim boards are actually hanging on the ends of the cantilevered joists. Joist hangers transfer gravity loads from the joist to a support - not so much the other way around. Let's hope that the rim boards are secured to the cantilevered joists with bolted angle brackets (that we can't see in the photos) especially if the hand rail posts are bolted through the deck into top of the rim boards.
Skeezix
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
One of the photos suggests that balcony edge may consist of a 3x, which directly receives the joist hangers at the outward end of the deck joists, plus another 3x.
again, hard to tell from this collection of photos.....
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
Skeezix
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
check out this photo from the OPs 2nd post.... maybe my eyes are deceiving me....
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo
RE: Cantilevered Wood Balcony @ Condo