We don’t often promote anything in these posts, but today is an exception. Shown here is an image of one of our most-used books: and it’s not the bulky, insomnia-slaying Code book, either.
This is the “Span table” book from the Canadian Wood Council (link here: https://webstore.cwc.ca/product/canadian-span-book-2009-4/ )
For those of you who lirez le francais, a French version is also available.
This book provides pretty much every possible joist, rafter, beam and lintel configuration possible, and is an essential tool for those folks who are doing renovations, small additions, garages, sheds and the like.
And it’s Code-compliant: the tables in the Wood Council book actually drive the tables in the National Building Code, but are more detailed.
It’s what we use to verify joist loads, deck loads, rafter assemblies during our plans reviews and our on-site inspections.