Thread: Steel I Beam Installation

I saw this steel I beam in a townhome yesterday. The basement had so much storage I couldn't get as close to the ends of the beam as I would have liked. But one end appears to have some steel shims underneath and a wood block which will do nothing. It is not mortared in place. The other end is sort of mortared in place but based on the exposed end on top of the beam, it doesn't look like the beam can be bearing on much of anything but the wood stud wall beneath it, but I can't be sure due to the limited view I had to work with.

It looks like the builders got a beam that was too short and tried to make it work. I think the installation looks weak. Aren't these supposed to pocket into the foundation walls and have mortar installed around them? That's the type of installation I am used to seeing.

Any thoughts? There was no evidence of any movement of the beam on the finished walls areas in the basement or in the 1st or 2nd floor rooms. The unit was 16 years old.

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Steel shims are fine, and ideally they are to be welded to beam and secured in place to the foundation, that may be why they are mortared.

Depending on your rules down there the bearing should be approx. 3.5" on foundation. There could be a minimum and someone else such as Jerry will certainly know.

Pict # 2 looks bad, 3" short and not supported correctly. How it passed original inspection is a real curiosity.. Maybe $$$ changed hands with the city inspector. It happens. The 2x supporting the beam is insufficient. A footer with a column would be a correction.

Sitting on steal shims is ok, though they should have been fixed in place to beam.

The stud wall is an acceptable support for the joists, so I don't know why they needed the I-beam, unless there is an open span not shown in the pics. I'm not saying the beam is correctly installed, just not sure why it is there at all.

It's a mid span beam for the ceiling joists.

Nick

Judging by photo the end of the beam has been cut at the top and the bottom of the flange has been left full length.

If that's the case, then the load carrying capacity of the beam has been compromised, correct?

Yes I would say so, unless of course an engineer approved same.