How do you splice an LVL floor Beam ? Same as a regular floor beam?
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You shouldn't have to spice it at all. My local yard can order them up to 35' long I think? Maybe longer?
Just ordered three of them at 22' for a current project we are on.
My floor designer says this beam isn't supposed to be spliced but butted on the posts- a 50' ish beam with 18', 13, 19' spans. Have you ever butted spans like that?
Do you not have some sort of column caps at the post/beam connections? Usually, the butt would occur in a column cap with each half of the beam bolted to the cap.
http://strongtie.com/products/connectors/CC-ECC-ECCU.asp
Not sure about LVL, but with glulams there are designs for simple spans and others for multi-span. Be sure that you order what your designer specs and use it as spec'd. Not sure why s/he did not address the hardware.
You can butt them, just make sure you have enought bearing surface under the ends. I would add something to keep them inline.
Yeah, you can butt them at the column supports like the others mentioned but if possible, I would use one long piece. You'll need a lift of some sort to raise it in place but I like the idea of one continuous beam for stability.
My floor designer says this beam isn't supposed to be spliced but butted on the posts- a 50' ish beam with 18', 13, 19' spans. Have you ever butted spans like that?
You can butt them. Why would you not use 32' and 18' and only have one joint instead of two?
Joe Carola
The designer is probably trying to avoid the framer's trick of breaking joints at 1/4-points of the span. In theory there is a spot in midair where the shear stress on the beam is close to zero, making it ok to put a joint there. In reality there are too many variables to do that so it's safer to just break joints over a column. I can't think of any reason why you couldn't span over a column if you can get the material long enough.
The "Engineered Wood Institute" http://www.apawood.org , I think ... have all manner of free downloads regarding how to use TGI's, LVL's glulams, and any other sort of 'factory made' wood.
Edited 11/23/2008 3:29 pm ET by renosteinke
Are you talking about a single one and three quarter LVL beam or a double LVL beam. If a double then brake the beam so that the breaks are staggered giving maximum bearing and connections. (i.e. one 31'-0" and one 19'-0" on one side and then starting from the other end with one 32'-0" and one 18'-0" on the other side.)