Need Advice On Beam

winn

we are currently doing a re-hab on an older building. The problem I'm having is there is a room that is elevated about 10' in the air. The old beam supporting it is bowed real bad. Made up of two 2x8's (real 2x8) at 15' long. My question is would it be feasible to install a 15" LBL in place of this old beam. Structure is supported by brick pillars on each end, and we really don't want to add a pier in the middle. This room is @ 10' up

Dan_Watson

Sound the air raid siren...

genecarp

http://ilevel.com/literature/TJ-9000.pdf

Here you go, save you the reading, two 11 1/4" should do it. BEST BLIND GUESS.

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HallisseyDesign

Well your going to get ripped apart but first thing first. A 15"lvl well you can go 11 7/8"s by 3 1/2" or 5 1/2" wide. They can handle 40 psf live and 15psf dead at 100% loads. So umm You are in over your head i believe. The only way I could even start to give you an answer would be to get pictures of the job, pics from all angles of the current beam. Pics of the pockets in the wall holding said beam.

The 15"lvl is not a lvl anymore. It is a big beam. BTW If i am wrong correct me.

Snobnd

Add an inch to the beem every foot ....so 10' in the air = 10" Now count the bricks across that will gove you the width 4 bricks = 4 lvl............................

Or something like that

neolitic

So far all I know is that the
"room" is 15' wide(?) and
10' in the air (irrelevant).
What I don't know is how long
the joist are/how many sqft of
floor, or anything about how much,
if any, roof load.....
With the charts Gene gave you
you might figure it out.
I can't even guess.

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(Sorry....it seems there really are dumb questions)

orson

Don't listen to these guys, just push it back up and nail strips of luan to each side and you're good to go.

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Dan_Watson

All engineers will tell you to use screws not nails.

cleveman

lower the room down so it's only 6' up in the air and the beam should eventually straighten itself out. If it starts to crown, raise the room to (let me figure this now)...7'-4 3/8" and you should be gut.

surf6524

Here in central Jersey we primarily use products by TrusJoist (Microlams, LVL's, Parallams, etc). The lumberyard I use has an rep from TrusJoist that does all the load calculations on the beam to specify what size/and or quantity the project requires. Probably a good place for you to start. If that service is not available, hire a structural engineer to size the beam for you. Not to be snide, but guessing only gets you a severely oversized beam that's unnecessary, or one that fails and leads to a callback. Going back to do it right a second time only costs you more money, and times are hard enough without that headache. Good luck with your project.

Dan_Watson

...injury or death. Thats what you meant to say right?

Its all fun and games but please OP either pass on the job, or sub to a professional that can handle this. This isn't a job for a handyman.

orson

Our local lumber yard has a guy like this too and I'm on the phone with him a couple times a week.

There is, however, a big difference between him checking load calcs on an architect designed building to which he designed the floor system and has a full set of prints on his computer, and having to deal with someone asking about LVLs over the phone in a completely blind scenario.

Call a local structural engineer who doesn't mind small jobs

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lodigirl07

jack up beam cut old beam be sure to have buiding support while framing out old beam replace with new 2 /2x8 beams of green board so it wont be destroyed by termite or water damage in the future i had same problem on a site but needed a total of 1 4x8 i used technige and it passed glad i could help.

Gold Tie

Becareful with that! You almost sound serious!!!

surf6524

Your absolutely right Always, the first consideration in building any structure is so that it is safe. When designing any type of structural beam, my rep is pretty adamant about getting as much information on the project as possible.....room sizes, existing floor joist depths, changes in joist direction, and any other walls or loads that may have a bearing on the performance of the beam. He won't do any calcs without this information. But I agree with you orson, unless a full floorplan with all the load data is submitted for accurate sizing, the resulting specified beam is useless. I'd check those brick piers too Winn, depending on thier age and how they were built, make sure you have adequate footings below them.

winn

thanks for the advice and the humor. The area we are trying to correct is an old sleeping porch that somewhere down the line had been enclosed w/ windows on two sides. The original span of 15' was propably sufficient 80 years ago with only a screen frame around it. We are going to add a LBL in place of the old beam,change the direction of the floor joist that are running the wrong way, reframe the walls with T111 on the exterior, rock the interior and re-install most of the windows. Sometimes when put on a budget by the investors, we need to get a little creative with our projects. It would always be nice to raze the structure and start all over again with a new plan and endless funds, but this isn't the land of Oz. We do about five re-habs a year for these investors, keeping safety, codes, and financial constraints. All any of us can do is the best we can with what the good lord gives us.

Gold Tie

I've heard of LVL (laminate veneer) and LSL (laminate strand).... What is LBL??

KentWhitten

I was sorta with you for a second until you mentioned changing directions of floor joists. I won't give you any structural advice and you shouldn't be accepting any either. At the very least contact the local lumber yard and see what they can help you with. Don't mess with structure. You are changing waaaaay too much.

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gregj

laminated bionic lumber - very strong stuff

KentWhitten

no no no....it's laminated bubonic lumber, very deadly

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