How To Make A Floor Beam

Learn how with this residential structural design tutorial.

How to make a floor beam.

I hope you found this article helpful. How to read floor beam span tables page includes a span calculator. A steel or wooden beam runs the length of the house and the ends of floor joists rest on it. Floor joists or beams provide the below surface support for the wood subfloor of a room.

The nails should be driven into the wood in an alternating v pattern. Begin at one end of the beam and nail the boards together using the 12 penny nails and hammer. Use a triangular measuring square to make a straight square cut. Making a 20 foot wood beam to support your floor or ceiling is pretty easy and basic but remember to wear your personal protective equipment before you get started.

A floor s framework is made up mostly of wooden joists that run parallel to one another at regular intervals. The simplest type of built up beam can be constructed by following three easy steps. Select straight boards that are neither twisted crowned or bowed for the beam components. Floor joists should be spaced no more than 16 inches 41 cm apart from center to center to provide adequate stability.

A wood beam has many advantages over steel beams due to the properties that make it lightweight. Make a wood beam with 2 8 boards. A good example of a load bearing beam is often seen in many basements. Choose high strength quality lumber for building beams.

Make another notch every 16 inches 41 cm to confirm the distance between each next joist. Ceiling joists are usually 2 by 6s or sometimes 2 by 4s if it is an older home. Common sense tells you that large floor joists can carry more load and spacing joists closer together also increases the load bearing capacity of a floor. Learning how to design with them becomes straight forward with a few pointers.

Flip the beam over. A load bearing beam carries the weight of the structure above it. Use a tape measure to measure 16 inches 41 cm in from the edge of the rim joist and draw a small notch. Wood framing tables can contain a lot of information in one table.

Floor joists are typically 2 by 8s 2 by 10s or 2 by 12s. Make sure to use construction adhesive in the seat of the hanger to prevent floor squeaks. Make sure that the ends and sides of the boards are flush the plywood should not protrude from within the center of the boards for the beam. Step 1 cut the individual boards.

Some newer homes have manufactured i beam shaped joists. This problem can be solved by installing a beam in the floor joist system and hanging the floor joists on the beam. The extra two inches of vertical distance when a floor is framed with 2 x 10 joists rather than 2 x 12s can be quite important for example. Sometimes you may want to have a beam holding the floor but you don t want the beam to be below the floor joists.