Started building a new house in the SE USA, 1st one since moving here from the midwest—Ohio. I am trying to get used to the building methods & conventions here & have had many discussions w/ the GC I am using. The latest has me scratching my head…I have a triple LVL beam spanning the length of the house-60′. Typically beams of dimensional lumber have 4′ of more overlap at the joints & splices. This has about 4″ & is between support posts. Looks like a problem down the road. Can LVL be treated differently from dimensional lumber?
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You're saying that the LVL is made up of three pieces sandwiched together, and that they butt-joined all three pieces within 4" of each other? Not good. There's some strength available in the cantilever of a beam off of a post, but good practice is to join sections over a post, or to overlap deeply as you say. LVL is just like lumber, only somewhat stronger for a piece of a given size. Good practice still applies.
Call the engineer or whoever spec'd the beam, and tell them how it was built. They can give you a better opinion than we can, based on the loads on the beam.
Davidmeiland is correct - No way is this right.
The folks who sold the beam should be able to contact their supplier's designers/engineers and come up with a solution.
But no way could it be right as it is.
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
You can also contact any of the LVL manufacturer's by phone or email and you will find that they are very helpful. There is obviously a vested interest in getting it right, so they will look at your design and comment or make recommendations. Many architects and contractors are not neccessarily familiar with the specific requirements for the correct connections for engineered lumber. I have had many discussions with TrusJoist about specific joint requirements and recommenstions that the architect could not answer, even though they specified the connection and LVL sizes! Most of the time the conservation in the sizing and design will compensate for minor deviations in the connections, but it is never a good idea to count on that!
FWIW, LVL's are available in 60' lengths. Could have put that together with zero splices.
I was thinking the same thing, Ralph
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