My construction crew said they would add a support beam perpendicular to and underneath the floor joists to beef them up – tile is going in – and said they would use a 6×6. Am I wrong in thinking two 2x6s, laminated (glued and screwed together) would be cheaper and stronger?
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Cheaper maybe, stronger no. You are correct in your reasoning that laminated two bys would create a stronger beam, however (2) 2x6 do not equate to the same section modulus as the 6x6..
In simpler terms, you'll need more than (2) 2x6s to equal a 6x6..
Without more specific dimensions of your conditions, (joist span, column spacing under this beam, tile weight, etc) the correct beam size cannot be calculated.
The 2x8 floor joists span almost 12 feet and are 16" OC. The whole house is built like this. The big guy jumped in the middle of a room and it looked like it flexed at least a half inch. Of course, this just won't do! I think they plan to put support piers in every 8' along the 6x6. Any more comments?
The big guy jumped in the middle of a room
Well at least they are doing scientific testing.
The 'construction crew' ... is the house under construction? being renovated? Or are these guys the tile setters?
If they are going to put supports every 8 ft, then that's a total of ... one post in the middle ... or two posts 8 ft apart and 2 ft in from the ends.
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