Gazebo Designs

Need to calculate foundation for pillars?

Putting up a gazebo/patio with an I beams salvaged from demo project. They are 42" tall, 45' long, 12 1/2 " wide. Very old & strong with riveting to hold it together. Great condition. Want to use the beams to be support for patio area with a small room in "attic". Will use four pillars/columns to support structure. Not yet final on pillar design but would like to use man made concrete columns with interior support like I beam or other suggestion. Washington DC style blocks on this site is my idea: http://drstoneworks.com/columns.htm . How do I calculate bases for the columns? Working on Iowa riverbottom with gumbo, shallow water level, no bedrock. Will be using Ludowici tiles for roof. Expect to have 30 feet width between I beams to make covered area 1350 sq ft. The beams are estimated to weigh 8 to 10k each. Ludowici tiles are approx 4 lbs ea. Want to use hip roof design. Thanks for any ideas

Public Comments

1. I have a new steel home, I built using narrow flange I beams. 3 each 50' long 24" deep and 12" wide. the colums were actually "Special moment resisting frames (smurf). No interior bearing walls so the open space was 50 x 50. Over 500,000 lbs of concrete steel and glass went into it. there were 9 colums and footings. each 4' square, 4' deep. The soils are very stiff and thier bearing capacity is well over 100 psi. (over 1 million lb capacity each) if you overexcavate below the topsoil, you should have no problem the only down side is the amount of concrete. you could design pilings, but drilling deep holes (about 12' deep and 24" dia) for poured piles (+ rebar) could be more of a problem.