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Builder said it is standard webbed trusses. Not sure of depth - either 16", 18", or 24". Supplied by Universal Forest Products. I'm waiting on them for an exact answer. Pics attached.
I want to put some artificial grass down - it would add about 1,200lbs, but the weight would be evenly distributed, so it'd be about an additional 5lbs per sqft. I'm not an engineer, but it seems to me it'd be fine if the weight was evenly distributed. How many people do you think it could hold afterward?
Those look like some pretty beefy trusses to me, I'm not an engineer but an architect and the static load of a roof deck or balcony is not what we are required to design to, rather, what is called the live load plus the static load, which is the potential load of a bunch of people (and furniture/fittings) on it. Typically, at least in CA., that potential live load would be like a jam packed Frat party with everyone dancing around on every square inch of it so I can't imagine that a few hundred pounds of artificial grass would collapse it. Best though to check with a professional.
That is a fairly short span. If the trusses are factory made (pressing in the longer prongs on real metal connector plates with a strong press, and not just hammering down some lesser ones for a site-built truss, and the supporting walls are correctly made, you shouldn't have any problems. In that case, I'd limit the number of people at a party to about 20, but more because that safety rail looks low if there was any horsing around. It could hold a lot more.
Looking closer at the connecting plates though, those may be site-built trusses. If so, and if the deck bounces when you walk on it, I wouldn't want more than a dozen people up there. It could hold up fine... or not. On the plus side, catastrophic failure would be unusual even if one did fail.
The artificial turf should be no problem.
How many peeps will depend- hopefully, whoever designed the trusses figured more than 40/15.
(40) being live load and (15) dead load. And they also figured at a 480 deflection and not 360. I'd put money on the L/360. You have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to cost- and generally, turf and frat parties are not givens for roof-top terraces.
Here's UFPI span chart:
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