LVL vertical drilling and notching 1

[69gs400s]

Greetings - I have some questions in regards to new construction being performed on my house.

First, the setup - house built in the late 1920's, recent renovations included removing the front 8' which were originally a porch that was later framed up to be internal space. No formal foundation forced us to remove and rebuild.

Front A-Frame on second story is new replacing small dormer.

Please excuse probably misuse of nomenclature

Issue #1-

All seemed well until electrical contractor just did his work. Vertical holes were drilled at 2 locations through load beam

Front to back load beam is 10' starting on old load bearing wall, landing on door header at 8', and continuing 2' foward to front of doorway

All LVL is Versa-Lam 7 1/4" x 1 3/4" and the beam is doubled

Detail of beam exiting house

Hole #1 drilled from top on angle and exits approx 11” from bearing wall, approx 1/3 of the way down

Let’s call this “left beam”, exiting left side

Hole #1 looking down from 2nd floor – note hole starts on right-side of 2x4, which is centered over and above the two beams, indicating probably complete penetration from right to left of “Left Beam”

Hole #2 in “Right Beam” exits at roughly 28” from bearing wall and 16” from hole #1

Hole #2 rough exit on bottom right side of “Right Beam”

Bottom detail of right side exit on Right Beam

Hole #2 looking down from 2nd floor – note hole starts on left-side of 2x4, which is centered over and above the two beams, indicating probably complete penetration from left to right of “Right Beam”

Detail shot of both holes from bottom

Next is issue #2 - what I'll call Reverse-notching of the door header to make room for the door.

My Questions are

1) how much strentgh is left in the double beam after the reaming it received

2) would adding additional LVL on either/both side(s) and bolting it all together be a reasonable fix

3) is the reverse notch on the door header going to create stress crack/riser in the inside corner ?

4) if so, what is a reasonable fix

Thank you very much for your help ...

... Alan

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Bitch at the electrician and make him pay for the engineer to review. Without spending a bunch of time reviewing everything - I do get paid by the hour - He may have made Swiss Cheese out of your beams - seen it done more than once

Hire a local structural engineer - we have to eat, too.

 

[SteveGregory]

Based on the length of your post describing your concerns, I would hire a structural engineer or have the electrician hire one to review the construction and get who is willing to place his P.E. seal on any letter or repair that is done.

 

[msquared48]

YOU hire the structural engineer, not the eletrical contractor. The engineer needs to work for YOUR interests at this point, not the electrician's.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

http://mmcengineering.tripod.com

 

[hokie66]

Hire a structural engineer if you are concerned, but I don't think your photos indicate anything out of the ordinary in residential construction. After all, the electrician has to put his wires somewhere, and if provision is not made for him, he drills.

 

[69gs400s]

Thank you all for your time and advice.

The LVL manufacturer, Boise Cascade, has been fowarded the plans from the Architect for review and recommendations.

From what I have been able to determine, this seems as much a point load issue on the notched door header (where the swiss cheesed beam lands) as it is the actual holes drilled themselves.

I understand we all need to eat (I'm a Network Engineer consultant myself ...) but given that the Manufacturer of the LVL is reviewing and will make recommendations to the architect - who will put their P.E. stamp on this - and the contractor is willing to do whatever is sent his way, do you still feel my best interests are served by hiring a Structural Engineer on my own behalf ?

... or should I wait and see what comes back

Thanks Much for the advice

Alan

 

[woodman88]

Attached is a copy of the VERSA-LAM ICC report ESR 1040. Section 4.6.1 discusses wall studs. Section 5.6 excludes cutting and notching except for wall studs. You might want to send your pictures (of the VERSA-LAM's) to the manufacturer of the VERSA-LAM's for their comments.

Garth Dreger PE - AZ Phoenix area
As EOR's we should take the responsibility to design our structures to support the components we allow in our design per that industry standards.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

If you believe what they tell you - then life is good!!! Trust - but verify. I stole that from some other guy on these forums!! and probably Ronald Reagan.

And architects aren't PEs - they are architects. Some know what they are doing - most do not!!!

 

[69gs400s]

The Manufacturer's Engineer got back to me with the following msg and attached report

"Attached is a BC Calc design report that shows the (2) 1 ¾” x 11 ¼” Versa-Lam cut down to a (2) 1 ¾” x 10 ½” deep member.

The member as cut is acceptable"

any advice on what the pdf is saying ?

Thanks

 

[69gs400s]

Hmm - attempt #2 at uploading PDF

 

[SteveGregory]

The PDF file says that a double 1.75x10.5 Versa-lam is OK for the given loading and span length.

 

[focuseng]

On the "Vertical Hole" hire a structural engineer on it ASAP. No BCI software analysis will get anything on this one. The software analysis output provided by BCI does nothing to address this.

The "Reverse Notch" is more benign. But it is quickly and easily checked by an engineer once you have him/her there to review issue #1.

Mark