Building a sleeping loft, what size beams are required?

[Dajo321]

Hello everyone!

I am going to build a loft bed in my apartment and am attaching a very simple drawing. However, I have questions about how thick timber is needed? Is a glulam beam required or can I manage with thicker lumber?

The area will be 300 x 165, meaning there will be a span of 300 across the room on one side of the construction, with the remaining sides having wall connections. All 4 corners of the platform will have supports underneath in the form of the lumber/beam that I choose, and 3 of the sides will be screwed into the wall.

The red-marked lines on the drawing are the crosspieces in the platform that will be attached with joist hangers.

Feel free to share your thoughts! How thick do the frame and supports need to be? And how thick should the crosspieces inside the frame be?
My thought is that it should be built to support 300kg, including a 160cm bed and 2 people, possibly heavy people .

Best regards,
David

 

[huggan]

If you use 45*220 C14, it meets the standard dimensioning for floors, which is 200kg/sqm. Are you just going to have a bed there?

 

[Dajo321]

If you use 45*220 C14 it meets the standard flooring dimensions, which means 200kg/sqm. Are you only going to have a bed there?

Yes, it will only be a bed there.

 

[huggan]

Then you don't even need to have that dimension if you don't want to.

 

[Dajo321]

So would 45 x 145 be sufficient? Or would it be too flimsy? The smaller it is, the better it will be with the ceiling height.

 

[Trollskidan]

Depends on what you are going to do there!
Happy Easter
Lay 4 longitudinally

 

[KnockOnWood]

I would settle for 145 x 45, just intuitively.

It can be nice to have a bit of swing as well

 

[Peter2400]

What kind of bed are you going to have up there? Are you going to have "floor" beside the bed, and what kind of ladder are you going to have?

 

[huggan]

45*145 is plenty.

 

[Dajo321]

Becomes a plank floor model thicker. Probably becomes a regular 160 bed base.
Regards

 

[Peter2400]

It will be a thicker model plank floor. Probably a regular 160 bed base.
Best regards

You could "recess" the bed base into the loft; the bed doesn’t need to stand on anything, which saves height, and the front beam can be 45x170 or 45x195 without reducing usable height.

You can lay the floor at the head or foot end.

 

[Peter2400]

This is how it turned out for us, I placed a 45x195 on the outside.

 

[Dajo321]

Nice, I will probably do that

I'll post some pictures of the result later.

 

[Dajo321]

By the way, how much ceiling height did you have left in the loft?

 

[Peter2400]

Thanks!
It's 75cm between the mattress topper and the ceiling, which is enough for an adult to sit up without hitting their head too often.