How to interpret the American Wood Council’s Design for Code Acceptance table of cantilevered joists

deck

In designing a deck I've been looking at this Deck Construction Guide (PDF)

Table 2 lists the max joist spans (Lj) for joists that are cantilevered by a maximum of Lj/4.

How do I calculate Lj/4? For example, say I have a 12 foot joist span and use southern Pine 2×12, could I have a cantilever of 4.5 feet(18 feet / 4), or 3 feet (12 feet /4)?

Best Answer

Directly from the document that you linked the following figure shows that the Lj and Lj/4 dimensions are additive.

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