how to build a wood shop floor that's strong enough to support a vehicle?

Question

How can I build a wood floor to be strong enough to support the weight of a car (Ford Tarsus) to be actionably worked on. If I can build the foundation with pressure treated lumber instead of a concrete slab I can build it with the material from a garage i'm taking down for my brother so the pressure treated foundation lumber will be my only framing cost.
I was thinking that if I build the floor joist out of thicker stock or but a joist 12" on center instead of 16" on center that should make the floor strong enough. Each joist will have more concrete block support under them than what is usually needed. Thanks for the help

Answer 1

Your problem is movement of the vehicle will cause your flooring to shift, and you need to think out how to anchor the flooring to prevent the shifting.



Also, what kind of concrete block are you talking about? Some block is cheap and crumbly and can't support a lot of weight at all, there is a lot of air in the block. And you can't anchor the flooring to that kind of block either.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Wood Shop Floor

Answer 4

No. According to the International Residential Code, if you space the floor 16" on center, you need a minimum of a 2x8 for the 10' direction or 2x10 if you go the 13' direction. (this assumes a standard spruce-pine-fir #3 piece of lumber). If it were my house I wouldn't use less than a 2x10 either way. Consequences are that the floor will fail and whatever's up there will end up one floor lower. The only simple remedy (if this is already done) would be to slide another 2x6 in right in the middle so there'd be one every 9". This would be a very hokey fix, but would hold up (assuming they go across the 10' direction). One more thought, were those supporting walls ever meant to be load bearing walls? Is there support underneath them to the foundation?