I didn't realize that the lumber yard could provide expert consultation in this way, so that suggestion was very helpful. I'd love to lower the foundation, but at what expense? Going lower on the foundation would have meant double the drilling since now I'm exposing more ledge area and it's more solid. Use ForteWEB to determine solutions for conditions beyond the scope of this table. For Canada switch to Canada Sizing Table Lookup. That got me an extra foot in the basement, to a 7' ceiling if I used 2x8's for joists. Use the drop downs to select your floor load, framing length, and material to calculate the appropriate size of TimberStrand or Parallam beam. I spent a week drilling holes (130) in the ledge and pouring in Dexpan to break it up to the point where a small hammer on a skid steer could bust it out. Blasting is not an option due to cost, and I doubt that any demolition person would do that when it's right next to another structure. When we dug the hole, we hit ledge at 6 feet down. Effective column length is equal to actual column length. I may keep the 8" LVLs and use them to stiffen the floor in the older section.Īs for "refusing" to drop the foundation, or raising the floor: It would be better to say I'm having to make choices. Table assumes that the column is braced at column ends only. Beam width should be 1/4 to 1/3 beam depth. The width can be increased by laminating in multiples of 1 3/4 inches. This will still be much better than the house I'm adding on to where the floors are carried by 2x8's sitting on horizontal 4x4's resting on piers every 6 to 10 feet. Design a beam width based on the fact that the typical width of an LVL beam is 1 3/4 inches. He said that if I used a triple 12", then the floor would be perfectly stiff, but the double would be fine. Said that if I put in a center post, I could stay with the 8", but I don't want that. I dropped in on them this morning and after looking it over and doing some calculations, they said I needed to swap out my 8" LVLs for 12". The Table of contents indicates that Table F-2 matches these loading conditions. From Australian trees to Australian trades, a Supply Agreement with Wesbeam puts the builder in control of their LVL and I-joist supply chain.
I'm getting my materials from Hancock Lumber in Conway, NH. Step 2 Span Table: Select the appropriate table in Span Tables for Joists and Rafters.