Main beam support?
Question:I just had a home inspection and (thankfully) the only thing that he found major is an easy fix. The previous homeowner had an addition put on the back of the house, but the support beam running down the center of the addition doesn't have proper support, causing deflection in my main beam.
He said to add two additional supports on either side of the center support of the beam.
He also said that I was NOT to jack up the beam, because it didn't need jacking, and that if I did, it would cause damage to the structure of my house.
I had to pay a little more for the inspection, but, it's because this particular company employs only engineers, so he's a home inspector AND a structural engineer, so he knows what he's talking about.
That being said, how the heck do I add the supports? Can I just dig a hole, add some posts, pour in some Quikrete and be done with it? He did tell me to add a steel plate between the posts and the beam for bracing.
Does this sound like a good plan?
Answers:
Dig a hole 18-24" square down to solid ground, or about the same depth as your footers. Pour 8" of concrete. Either lay concrete block on top with mortar or install a steel post correctly sized. As your inspector said, steel plate on top of the post to provide bearing. Not too bad at all.
I think your plan is sound. I would pour pads and use jack posts. They come with steel plates, and you can adjust them to just bear the weight, without "jacking."
I have raised beams in old houses without damage. Several small adjustments over a long span of time beat trying to "make things right" all at once though.
To put it bluntly ...no. That would be a good plan if you were building a fence.
I'm a little surprised that a structural engineer would have given you that suggestion and then allowed you to fend for yourself.
The foundation is the most important part of the structure. If the foundation fails everything that relies on the foundation will fail along with it. The columns are attached to your foundation, the columns support your beams and the beams support your joists thus you could see the potential issue with just pouring concrete and setting a pole.
Columns of a house unlike a fence carry a significant amount of weight (load). This load pushes down into the soil and w/o concrete the column will continue going deeper and deeper into the ground until the ground is strong enough to exert the same force back.
If you set lets say a 12 ft column on a base of concrete that is not designed strong enough to support the weight of your structure. Your column then settles 3 inches over six months. You've then either caused your new beam to deflect 3 inches or your back to the original problem with an additional beam of weight affecting your original structure and the column is now doing nothing.
This isn't a task that without proper knowledge you should be tackling yourself. Get a structural engineer to come out and detail what you need to do. This is their job. They will tell you the proper support hangers, where they need to go, the correct size column, a detail of the foundation, how the soil under the foundation needs to be prepared etc. etc.
A structural engineer requires a 4 year degree, 4 years of instruction under a registered engineer and has to pass 2 tough exams before they can even call themselves an engineer. They also have to maintain their license by attending continuing education classes. The described behavior is very unbecoming of a true engineer and I would be very suspect on using them to design what you need to have done. My advice it to seek out a different company.
The only question I would have is why doesn't he want you to correct the deflection? The easiest way to do this if he doesn't want you to move the beam at all is to dig out the hole for the footing and hang the beam in place over the hole then fill the hole with concrete to the bottom of your support beam.
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