How much can i store weight wise on my flat office roof?

Question

I have an office inside a warehouse with a flat roof. We would like to store some miscellaneous items on top. We were told we needed a sign that displayed the weight capacity of the roof. How would I calculate this? The office is 17 feet by 14 feet, it has manufactured I-beams and 1/2 plywood on top.

Answer 1

You need to compute the moment and shear capacity of the beams and equate them to generated moment which includes both the known dead loads of the beams and the ply and solve for the live load load moment and then solve for the allowable Live load per beam and per unit area of the roof. If you send me the plans, I can solve this for you and I will schedule you for a session to explain this. The plan should have the information I need including the beams type and properties