Add 2nd floor to pole building and beam sizing ?’s

Currently in planning stages of what i can do to get more shop space.. one of the ideas involves going upward with a second floor, then adding an equally tall but open floor to trusses area behind existing shop(for lifts and stairs and stuff) as well as a single story enclosed “carport” area down one side.

  I’m not sure what type of beams i would need to span 25 feet but i’m assuming along the lines of 3 2x14 LVL’s glued and bolted together.  I have a structural engineer in the family but do not want to use his time until I can get an approximate idea of which materials are needed so I can have the money available.

I will draw the ideas and post a picture.  Currently the building is 26x32 outside dimensions with 5 posts on each long wall(0, 8, 16, 24, 32’) and the gable ends are on the short walls.  Front wall has 16x7 overhead door and rear wall has 5x7 overhead door.  

I had thought about building a separate garage just to park in but that would take up a decent chunk of where the kids play, and i’d be sitting on my deck staring at a garage.  That would also entail running electric underground where the current shop already has that under control and way more concrete because it would be in an area with no driveway going to it.  Concrete goes by the cubic dollar around here.  

How tall would this end up being? Any height restrictions that you'd need to bother with?

I'm sure you've considered it already, but could the garage just be extended either front or back?

Some lvl manufacturers list the load and span specs for their beams in PDFs online. Should get you quite close to what an engineer would.

like this one, for example: https://parr.com/PDFs/LP%20LVL%201.9E.pdf

I'd be more concerned about the footings for the poles themselves.  Are they adequate to support a second story and whatever you're putting up there?  Unless the second floor was considered during the initial build it's possible that they're not.

No height restrictions, in rural area.  Everyone’s barn is bigger than mine, they just built a 20’ tall 60x120 across the street.  would go from 8’ side walls to about 17’6” to keep 8’ for both floors including floor framing.  It’s built recent enough that i can probably get the info on the construction from the county.  I’m trying to get parts storage out of the main working area, and open up room to park more vehicles indoors.  The limit i can go back is about 20’ and sideways about 10’.  Can’t go sideways the other direction because of setbacks and forwards is driveway. 

Posts are 4x6, footings should be 36” deep based on code and the fact that this was built with permits,, and i can dig down next to one to see what circumference they are.  

I’ve never run afoul of the county building department with drawing and building additions for customers, but pole construction is out of my comfort zone as far as design and loads go

I've been planning something similar and I pretty much decided to install an additional pole in between and just outside/inside the existing ones for the second floor. Then I wouldn't have to worry about how the existing footings are constructed.

I'm very curious to see how they build two story pole barns from scratch. The only ones I've seen have the second story built more like a building within a building and they don't use much of the outer structure for support. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I'm very curious to see how they build two story pole barns from scratch. The only ones I've seen have the second story built more like a building within a building and they don't use much of the outer structure for support. 

Not sure, my buddy’s mom has one I should look at it.  

I just watched a video where they sistered new taller 6x6 posts to the originals with bolts and put a new beam across the top of those to make the building taller.  Coming from my background of working on homes, it makes more sense to me to build a floor then stick frame upstairs walls and put the trusses back up.