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athermalwill t1_jbk7k05 wrote

Does the floor show any signs of buckling or sag where the previous owner parked?

If not, I would probably just double down on the sheathing with a layer of 3/4” advantech flooring.

If it does, more sleepers and blocking between the 2x4s is probably the practical way to go.

It sounds as if nothing serious would happen in the event of a failure.

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foxhelp t1_jbkduuk wrote

Agreed, if there is no sagging I would go this route.

if there is sagging then I would just add another 4x4 skid mid point between the skids and then add the 3/4 advantech.

But I am not a professional builder!

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nalc OP t1_jbkhl9y wrote

There's no buckling or sag, but I think my car is a fair bit heavier (and higher tire pressure) than what the previous owner was parking.

The Advantech seems pretty reasonable for 9 sheets, and certainly easier to put down a second floor than to try to cut up the old one.

I might go at it with a pry bar and see how easy the current floor panels come up. I like the idea of prying them up for the 4x4 sleepers on top of the skids but if they're a pain in the ass to get up then IDK, maybe it's better to cut out slots with a circular saw set to 5/8" depth. Or perhaps only add sleepers in the specific joist bays where the car would be parked, not all of them?

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davidmoffitt t1_jbkwvlu wrote

WTAF would tire pressure have to do with anything? Weight is weight, gravity is gravity, do you think a 100lb bag of feathers differs from 100lb drum of water? 🤣

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nalc OP t1_jblpxmo wrote

>WTAF would tire pressure have to do with anything?

The contact patch of a tire is the weight of the vehicle divided four divided by the tire pressure. So if you're calculating a maximum loading it's kind of important. I don't have any doubts of the floor's ability to support the weight of the car if it was evenly distributed over 280 sq ft. But it's not, it's distributed over four 0.2 sq ft contact patches each totaling about 1,000 lbs. So obviously the worst case scenario is the weight of the tire right in the middle ~2" of a 14.5" unsupported span of 5/8" plywood causing the plywood to crack. The compressive strength of wood is on the order of 1 ksi so I'm not worried about the 4x4 skids or even about the joist compression (since each 2x4 joist has about 5 sq in of contact to the skid). I have struggled to find good resources on plywood strength over short distances with very concentrated loads so that's why I'm asking for advice.

Would you rather someone drop 100 lbs bag of feathers or 100 lb of water on your head? I know which I'd prefer.

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bigloser42 t1_jbm2z5m wrote

For the purposes of what you are doing, the tire pressure & contact patch size is almost irrelevant. You’re talking about a difference of a few square inches at best. Weight is far more important.

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