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Sagging Beam

7K views 32 replies 14 participants last post by  darthdude 
#1 ·
So here is an interesting one of the crew are currently working on this week. History behind the project. 1950's house, masonry construction, original house has single entry door. H.O. who is a real estate agent does renovations last year

Change entry door from single to double, remove bearing wall and add beam to replace, along with lots of other cosmetic items.

We get referred to him as it appears his new beam is sagging. Pickle and I go and snap a line on this beam, 18' span, 1" bow in the centre of the beam. Strip the drywall, it's a 3 ply 9 1/2" LVL spanning 18', one side is supported with 2 - 2x, other end is sitting on a 3x3x3/16" angle front above the front door :laughing:

This beam is holding up the 2nd floor and roof :blink:

Needless to say, I tell him to get an engineer, steel beams are in order (we can go thinner thus allowing full casing around the door, not some ripped trim cause the beam is too big)

So I have one guy who is multi talented, surgeon like, supports the 2nd floor to the main with alumibeams and shoring jacks, and does the same below from main floor to basement floor. Bottle jack and spends about an hour lifting the 2nd floor and roof back up, miraculously the 2nd floor meets the 1/4 round again, the shower floor in the ensuite meets the tile walls again, the bedroom doors don't close by themselves anymore.

Remove the masonry above the front door, install steel beam above door with flanges to accept beam holding up 2nd floor (T pattern), 10 guys at 7:30am lifting an 18' steel beam into place in the middle of the house...priceless

Where am I going with all this? I gave the guy the price and it literally knocked him on the ground originally, he has a bad taste with contractors since the first one did some really shabby workmanship (remind me to tell you about the dryer type flex duct running from the basement to the 2nd floor). Needless to say, after he witnesses the job being done correctly, he admits he sees why I charge what I charge.

The bonus part...he is a real estate agent and has already put us onto 2 confirmed projects and awaiting plans to bid another

Normally I would walk away from jobs like this, the hassle since another contractor did them wrong, the bad taste they have, I usually don't have the patience to deal with these people who now think everyone is out to steal from them. Kind of glad I stuck this one out.
 

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#5 ·
10@22 beam above the door and same to hold the floor. 2-6x6 angle iron with A325 bolts where they T together and above the door is shimmed and welded on top of masonry wall with the original 3x3 angle iron still in place. Did not want to remove for concern of damaging exterior brick and not being able to match mortar.

What did I charge...a hell of lot more then the guy was expecting, but after seeing what it took to do it right he admitted he understood the reason for the price he is paying
 
#7 ·
Good job!

Second floor and the roof load?

A mighty fine thing you are located near the tropics where you don't get any snow loads on the roof!:no:

I wounder what the previous contractor was thinkin'?

I like those aluminum beams. Did you just so happen to have those laying around in just the right lengths?
 
#17 ·
It's alumibeam, I own 700' plus another 90 shoring jacks. We use it for insuldeck and suspended slabs...and holding up houses while we replace beams apparently.

If we run short I can rent or buy more, I buy used, it's not much difference between the two other then used is about 40% of new price. Once you own the stuff you'll be amazed at the jobs you find other uses for. I.E. You will never build a temp 2x4 support wall for anything, stick it in, take it out, easy to store
 
#18 ·
Thanks, Chris!

When I first saw your original post, I did a google search for alumibeam but got 47 gazillion hits and, from all that I looked at, it wasn't exactly what I see in your pic. sure looks like something I would love to have.

I will try the search again. Maybe I typed something wrong.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Actually funny story about my steel supplier. We built townhouses in Hamilton, it's Canada version of Pennsylvania...they make the steel there

It was cheaper for me to buy from my supplier...an hour and 1/2 away then it was locally...I was literally a 6 minute drive from the manufacturing facility.

And the job used a little over 90k worth of steel...go figure
 
#30 ·
My 70 year old father in law and I lifted these by ourselves
Looks to me like you used machinery. :whistling

Nothing wrong with machines when they're cost and time effective, but we do sometimes talk ourselves into using them when they're neither. Not to mention the buzz you get accomplishing something like that with just good planning and a wad of muscle. Every one of those guys got a warm fuzzy to tell greenhorns about. :thumbsup:
 
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