Structural engineers

What is the distance from the drywall in photo #2 to the wall on the other end of the floor trusses that are supported by the LVL. Drywall to drywall or garage door or masonry wall what ever is on the other side.

One last thing, are there any walls or posts on the floor able that carries load down through the floor trusses?

This looks like it might be a garage or walk-out basement. You might have some walls that are non-bearing. You most likely have roof trusses since you have floor trusses and unless the roof is a crazy shape only the exterior walls will be load bearing.

My gut tells me the LVL is undersized at 17 feet because floor trusses tell me the span is probably around 25-30 feet with the LVL in the center.

Neal in NC®

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Okay, here is your answer

Mar 21, 2024, 4:24 PM [ in reply to No. ]

I don't ever do structural evaluations unless I actually put my eyes on it. I don't ever want to be in front of a judge when someone was hurt and him ask me why I didn't put my eyes on it. I do way more of these than I want to, but figuring stuff out is sometimes fun. When there is a problem that nobody can figure out, it makes it to me often. I do a hundred or so a year and it is about 10% of my billing.

I see this problem often under kitchens. Building code requires us to design houses for 40 psf. Yet kitchens are usually much higher load in reality. There is often a big island with a heavy slab and cabinets in the center of the room and refrigerators and cabinets filled etc.

With just the weight of the structure and nothing else, I'd expect that beam to sag about 3/8 th's of an inch. If there is a center island and/or cabinets you can double that to about 3/4 th's of an inch

Loaded to code with people up there during Christmas and I'd expect 1-3/8th's of an inch.

The beam is undersized by code. If I was designing this beam, I'd use minimum (3) 1.75 x 11.875" deep.

The way to fix it is to add a post in the center (usually not desirable) or add 2 more plys to the beam. Jack it up just a little and then add a ply on each side with the connection pattern below.

You aren't supposed to have a 5 ply member, but we don't have a choice here without getting expensive. I'd add each ply with two rows of Simpson SDS screws 6" long 24" on center and stagger them 12" from one side to the other so that the screws are not in the same location.

One last thing. It looks to me like they did not nail the trusses to the top of the lvl. Each truss should be connected. They could have shot down through the top of the bottom chord, but since they didn't use an engineer to size the beam they might not have built it right either.

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Structural engineers

LOL

It's my trusted source for professionals***

I'm not a structural engr, nor did I stay at a HI express lass night, but

It doesn't

Sorry. I tried.***

his situation is #4

Seven. Eight with enough lube and patience.***

Moisture content is often overlooked***

7 is correct

How much weight are you putting in the

That's in another place***

Allowable current code deflection for a floor is

was going off memory

reverse that since it's not on it's side lol***

take a picture of it

Re: take a picture of it

Now

16' span, sitting on the poured exterior walls

Re: 16' span, sitting on the poured exterior walls

No.

You guys. Seriously! Why hasn't

Bigthump builds it has been building

Okay, here is your answer

Deer all structural engineers

We have to know the max weight of the guy you're going to...

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