Iffin the roof falls in on your tractor,....it wasn't over built!
Brackets For Wood Beam
- Thread starter rich_ncal
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Iffin the roof falls in on your tractor,....it wasn't over built!
Kyle241
Platinum Member
Had a local welding shop do up mine for a post & beam home I built. They were 1/4" steel, nicely made and worked perfectly.
kco
Veteran Member
Here are photos for the beams in our house, which was built in 1981. As already mentioned, it is good to over-design structural members like these. The plates appear welded from 1/2" thick x 4 1/2" steel.
kco
Veteran Member
:laughing:
Rereading this thread in the listing, I noticed it has over 15,000 views. It was started in 2007. Hopefully the OP already found his solution.
Rereading this thread in the listing, I noticed it has over 15,000 views. It was started in 2007. Hopefully the OP already found his solution.
sdkubota
Platinum Member
In most cases my concern would not be with the steel but with the connection hardware (lag bolts) and whether it can transfer the loads.
kco
Veteran Member
Although this is an old thread, it's still an interesting discussion.
That's a valid concern about the connection sdkubota. In this case I'm not concerned. I was fortunate to meet one of the carpenters who helped build the house. The owner was a professional builder who raised his family in it. The lumber came from a small mill a few miles from here. That includes all the moulding, tongue and groove, etc. You can tell by the plain design fo the moulding.
One exception is the top roof 2" x 12" fir joists which are 28' or 30' long. Although the maximum span is 14' he insisted they be one continuous piece. They were shipped from a Vancouver mill.
The steel plates connecting the beam are "Z" shaped and thus hung from the supporting beam. The beams are 5" x 13 1/2". The stair stringers and 3' wide steps are 3" x 13". They were built by a neighbour who still lives in the area.
A few years back we replaced the lower roof's cedar shakes with shingles. We added 1/2" plywood to the 2" x 4" strapping that held the shakes. I asked the roofer how the roof looked. He said: "It's solid, real solid". They are 2" x 12" for the 16' span.
It is a different story today. Most small mills have been forced out by government and big mills and the best lumber is exported. It is still possible to get good lumber from some very small, private mills.
sdkubota
Platinum Member
Just to add a little bit about "good" lumber...old growth forests supply the highest structural quality lumber and still used in critical stringers in trusses. The old growth has numerous growth rings very close to one another as the trees grew very slow and were allowed to get very large. Modern lumber is mostly hybrids that have been developed to grow quickly and harvested at fairly small sizes. The growth rings on most modern lumber are huge showing just how quickly these trees grow. They are also harvested in some pretty small diameters but do create sustainable forests. The lumber from these modern hybrids are roughly 1/3 the strength of old growth but work fine in most uses.
Grumpy Old Man
Platinum Member
Most any real lumber yard has connections to have these built for you just ask !