A 3 inch notch in a 4 inch beam which supports a lot of floor and a wall?
I take it its been that way for some time? If so, it suggests that its not going anywhere in a hurry. It looks rather like most of those floor joists are pretty deeply toothed into it as well.
Assuming the bottom (i.e. tension side) of the beam is still there, then I would be inclined to glue up a couple of folding wedges, tap em into place, and stick the floorboard back! That will provide the missing compression side of the beam.
Like:
Wedges seem a good idea. thanks.
[george]
What is the overall length of the beam in question? Obviously the longer the beam the greater the bending moment. If its only a yard or so wide you may not have much to worry about. At a pinch you could attach a suitable angle iron to the beam to carry the load instead.
one yard to the wall at the left, five yards to the right [g]
I might be tempted to add 3 noggins, fixing them well to the timbers running in /both/ directions
NT
Is there any sign of bending? lay a straight edge along it and measure the deflection.
Is the loading going to be changed from what it is now?
Maybe it was built that way and is fine. It is quite a wide beam.
Robert
By rights at that length the beam looks as if it should have collapsed under its own weight long ago. A silly question I know but are you sure that there is a flat ceiling beneath and not an exposed beam with another 4 - 6" of depth below what is shown in the photo?
As to improving the situation how about a steel fishplate across the top replacing the floorboard in the vicinity of the notch?
like noggins, albeit very chunky noggins. It appears that the joists run counter to the wall as one can see by the direction of the boards & the laths.
The deep notch was for plumbing installed in the 60's (i think)
I think the beam is oak, recycled when they built this house 150 years ago from the old house they knocked down - so its very strong!
John Rumm's wedges seemthe way to go.
Lift my bedroom floorboards and you will see something very similar. Major beams 9" x 6" and transverse beams 4" x 3". Downstairs all you see is the bottom 4" of the major beams although when the house was built what would have been seen was both sets of beams and the painted underside of the floorboards.
The two transverse beans on the left of the picture do not appear to be continuous. Indeed the far left one appears to have an offset at the middle of the major beam.
Wait, is the beam 4" tall, or 4" wide?
If 4" tall and what's visible is the top-side of the ceiling below then don't you only have 4"-high joists too, which doesn't sound like enough to be holding up a floor at all? (at least not over average room-sized spans; if it were supported every foot or two, or in an attic not designed to take furniture loads, it might be different)
cheers
Jules
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