Concrete wall

[Calatrav]

Can anyone tell from this picture what the most probable reason for this c-channel is?

 

[GC_Hopi]

It is probably there because someone is turning that wall into swiss cheese.

 

[oldestguy]

It appears a former wall section below was removed to make the opening you see. The channel holds up what is left.

 

[Ron247]

I agree with oldestguy, looks like someone fastened the channel to the wall to make a header for an opening. Looks like the channel is just one side only. I have a curiosity as to whey it takes 24 bolts to attach the channel to the wall to be held up, but the left side only needs 2 bolts to attach the channel to the stable wall area while the right side needs 8 bolts. I guess the bolts are expansion or epoxy. Does not look engineered, looks like it was a "Cousin Billy Joe can fix it".

 

[Calatrav]

Thank you guys for your response. I had an EIT and an another engineer tell me that this was a ledger. I originally thought it was to stabilize the wall or to keep from cracking so I am a little concerned with someone treating this as a ledger and applying additional load.

 

[jayrod12]

Not a ledger, most definitely a lintel for the opening..

 

[BUGGAR]

Sometimes it's good to overdrill for when you hit that rebar. And it looks like they got a row of anchor holes right at the joint? Also probably adds out of plane support to the wall segment above?

 

[EDub24]

My first instinct is it was meant to be a ledger of some sort. It was probably used as such before the opening was put in. It doesn't appear to be centered over the opening so it doesn't make sense it would be a lintel.

 

[MIStructE_IRE]

You’d be surprised as to what ‘makes sense’ to people when there’s no engineer involved

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

Definitely a post-installed header/lintel. I've done similar to brick and concrete walls to create new openings. However I use double channels (one each side) and use them as temporary headers and have the contractor put in a more typical permanent header in the opening and then either abandon or remove the channel temp. header.

I suspect the reason it's off-center is due to the joint on the right side of the photo. They added some length on that side and put in a bunch of extra bolts to ensure they transferred load to both panels.

Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL, HI)

 

[EDub24]

That's a good point. I was looking at the photo on my phone and thought that line was wiring or something. In that case it does seem to be a header.

 

[Prestressed Guy]

I agree with the header hypothesis. For further evidence, you can clearly see that the opening has been cut out after casting from the saw-marks showing in the closeups.