structural issue partially garage related

[driven3]

So I live on the flood plain in NJ, and lost most of my home to Sandy three years back.

I just finished having my home lifted, and in the process ended up with a partially collapsed ceiling.

The picture below is of my master bedroom, which opens to an attic which some previous owner converted to a loft.

While lifting the house, the old substandard main beam was replaced with a 6x14 microlam, taking all of the sag out of the house.

In the process, it lifted wall C up to where it should have been.

The ceiling in the bedroom, which is also the floor in the loft didn't move. By wall C, the ceiling was about 3" below where it should have met the wall. The ceiling is made of 2x6 on 16" centers, with a span of roughly 17' from wall a to wall B. Since the ceiling and floor above are both finished, sistering would be really time consuming and expensive.

I bought some lolly columns, and have taken the belly out of the ceiling, but now need a permanent solution.

After speaking to an engineer and a contractor friend, the consensus is to add two 4x6 microlam beams across the room and sit it on jack studs inside walls C and D.

Since I have a roughly 17' span, I was going to put 2 beams in, about 5.5' apart, diving the room into thirds. This would make each span relatively short aloowing me to get away with only 1x6 on 16" for my ceiling/loft floor.

Anybody have any input on this? I am not a contractor, but have framed out rooms and built decks before.

Just trying to get some more input from the "pros" before tearing into anothe prroject.

Thanks.

 

[matt_i]

I had to look up microlam, its an LVL. One cannnot buy just a 6" depth that I can find, there is a 9-1/2" and there is definitely an 11-7/8" deep beam. Also they are 1-3/4" thick, so it will end up being 3-1/2" wide.

Based on there not actually being a 4x6 size, I think you are out of your league in picking the size of structural members. Not trying to pick on you in public, but you need real engineering assistance and stamped plans. The concept is correct, but you need help with the actual sizes and detailing this out.

Edit: also I hope "get away with 1x6 @ 16" o.c." is a typo. No 1x is an appropriate floor joist in anything other than a kid-built fort.

 

[driven3]

Matt_i

Thanks for the response.

the 1x6 was a typo, in the text above i had put 2x6, somehow I hit the wrong number later on.

As far as the new LVL beams, I know that a 4x6 doesn't exist, I had planned to buy a 1-3/4 x 11-7/8 beam, and rip it into two pieces just shy of 6".

I was going to bolt them together and sit this 3-1/2 x 5-15/16 beam up on doubled up jack studs. The dimensional equivalent of this would be a 4x6 board.

Sorry if I forgot to put all of the details of my plan into writing. Other than that, how do I look?

 

[kd3pc]

Matt_i


As far as the new LVL beams, I know that a 4x6 doesn't exist, I had planned to buy a 1-3/4 x 11-7/8 beam, and rip it into two pieces just shy of 6".

I don't believe you can rip the LVL and still have the strength needed, nor should you.

Engineer is called for or a steel beam of the correct dimension, strength and support.

 

[Kpaige]

Steel i beam is the best solution using your plan to support in the wall. One thing to note you have to carry the load all the way down so you will need support below the posts to the main structuure

 

[Richard Cranium]

I agree, You shouldn't rip a lam beam, So a steel beam would be your solution.

 

[bczygan]

You certainly could rip an LVL, but the strength of the resulting member would need to be calculated.

You ARE having these members all sized (By someone who knows how to properly engineer them) so they adequately support the required loads, RIGHT?

And your engineer friend and contractor have followed those loads down through the structure, running the numbers and checking each member, RIGHT? They would seal a drawing if needed?

Ask them.

Things will tend to get very real, very fast.

If you are asking us here on the internet, to reinforce the answers you got, then they must have been pretty ambiguous. Make them more real.

Bill

PS. It certainly seems like the entire structure could use a good looking at, by a qualified person.

 

[mnoeltne]

I wouldn't recommend ripping an LVL either. But, it looks like Weyrhauser makes their Microllam LVL 2.0e in a 5-1/2" width and publishes specs for it.

I won't give any advice on the rest of it, as I tend to just eyeball it and overbuild.

 

[bzinsky]

this seems like the precisely the sort of thing that you're not going to get good advice without someone seeing it

you can get good advice on what type of products to use for specific things, but solid advice on overall strategy is unlikely without inspection or a much more detailed post with plenty of photo's

where are you in NJ?

 

[CTyankee]

What your specific requirements would be I'll leave to the engineers, but according to Weyerhaeuser LVL's can be ripped down to 3 1/2 in. the thickness cannot be changed.