Watching the new Adam Corolla's new comedy hour on remodeling his investment property last night, one of his contractors cut a major structural beam short by something like 3' at one end. Adam came up with the idea to sandwich the beam with two pieces of what look like 3/4" plywood and nails as a fix. I think the inspector is going to flag this. What would be a real fix other than getting another beam?
Depending on the loading an engineer would have to make some calculations and be ready to stand by it. Real trick is getting the city to accept it with out the enginnering.
Depending on how big the beam is and what the loads are, through-bolting steel plates on either side of the beam.
RWeld the cut off piece back on.
Yeah, I wondered the same thing myself. It was a glulam beam, about 4" x 14", and about 24' long. They 'fixed' it with 2 pieces of 3/4" plywood about 4' long, screwed to each side. Some of the workers predicted failure, I suspect they are building drama for when the inspector makes them tear it out in future episodes.
And where is this house located, anyway? I was staggerd by the asking prices for the houses in the first episode. Plain little 1000 square foot homes that would go for 60K here in northern Ohio were being marketed at $500,000 - $7000,000.
Dennis
They can weld wood now...?
RDennis; My house (located in Massapequa Park, NY) is valued around there. Really its a nothing special house. Its just the cost of living is outragiously high. Basically around here we work to pay the mortgage.
Tom
The right fix would be to get another beam. I saw adams fix too and though WTF???
I didnt understand the logic not getting the steel plate in there.
There are ways of cutting costs on construction, screwing around with a major load bearing beam isnt on of them though.
He's going to get flagged big time on that one. It should make for some interesting drama in some future episode.
What drama? There's an old saying if you have a problem and you throw money at it and it goes away, you don't have a problem - unless you don't have the money. Obviously he has the money. It's more entertaining to watch people screwing up, but even if they destroyed the house and they had to knock it down, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money the show will make for them.
R
Steel plates, a properly cut and pegged scarf-joint, or an extra post right under the seam.
Getting a building inspector to believe you about the scarf joint might be a trick, though.
I think its somewhere in Southern California. I see prices for those fixer-uppers this high too in the Bay Area. Elsewhere you could build as low as around for $50/ft but in the Bay Area its around $300/ft. plus the ridiculous price for the land on top on it. If it has any kind of view, say looking over the Golden Gate Bridge or some such, its in the millions just for the developed lot. Good thing is property values are coming down slightly during the last 3 months. Good show, give something to laugh at, or not what to do or who not to hire.
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