Plywood box beam

[MIStructE_IRE]

I’m hoping to use a plywood box beam (ie a timber ladder clad with glue and screw ply). Its 6m long but the plywood sheets come in 2.4m lengths meaning I have 2 joints each side. It makes sense to stagger the joints so they don’t align but the joints still seem like real weak points to me.

Any thoughts/experiences?

 

[Celt83]

check out the attached APA guide on box beams they have some guidance for the joints. link

My Personal Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

Open Source Structural GitHub Group:

https://github.com/open-struct-engineer

 

[JSPenney]

@MIStructE Why don't you use a simple multiple ply LVL beam? I personally don't trust a residential contractor to use the correct size of screws and spacing.