I'm building a home which has a spec for a steel girder, rather than wood beam, under the first floor subfloor. THe girder is a 10WF21. I'm trying to understand:
a) should the girder sit on the sill, in the same way as the wooden beam would, or should it rest directly on the concrete
b) how do the floor joists join into the beam
c) can someone tell me from the spec of the beam if the beam height will be the same as the 2x12's that I plan to use for the sill?

 

Mike:
This is the best advice anyone can give you.
Study your house plans and it will tell you how to install the beam, what it sits on, and the exact dimensions. Anything form and of us would only be an educated guess, and it could lead you astray. Good Luck

 

Hi Mike,

There are two ways to run a beam. The easiest, is to have it going across the joists. You would set it with the top flush with the top of the founation. This way, when you splice the joists, which you will have to do if the span is greater than 20 ft., the joints will rest on the beam for support. The ends of the beam rest in a pocket. Usually this is a concrete pillar made into the block foundation. In some cases, you just have to fill the voids in the block under the beam with mortar but check your local building codes 1st. The other way to install a beam is to use a LVL beam. Since they are made of wood, you can nail into it, This is great if you need the clearance under the beam, It will run across the joists but instead of the joists resting on the beam, they will butt into it using joist hangers. This too is a matter of local builing code so please check first. If I'm not quite clear, My e-mail address is john@nakremodeling.com. Good luck

quote:<HR>Originally posted by mike pasqua:
I'm building a home which has a spec for a steel girder, rather than wood beam, under the first floor subfloor. THe girder is a 10WF21. I'm trying to understand:
a) should the girder sit on the sill, in the same way as the wooden beam would, or should it rest directly on the concrete
b) how do the floor joists join into the beam
c) can someone tell me from the spec of the beam if the beam height will be the same as the 2x12's that I plan to use for the sill?<HR>

 

John:
You narration on steel beams was good, however in this case since the specs called for the steel beam, they also told about the columns. I have installed many steel beams
like he discribed, and am also a civil engineer. I know better then to outguess a
designer. That is why my answer was as it was. We never want to lead a person astray.
Have a good day.

 

In order to attach the joists to the beam you will have to bolt a 2x onto it the entire length.

Girders/beams don't sit on the sill, but rather are set into a pocket that was formed into the concrete wall when it was poured.

The height of the top of the beam should be even with the top of your concrete wall.