Steel beam to wood beam connection types 3

Web packing - drill holes in the web, fill the beam web with lumber and through bolt. Then you can use face mount hangers. You can also attach the nailer to the top of the steel with PAFs or, if the flange is thing enough, specially designed screws. There are also top flange hangers that are thick enough to be welded directly to the top flange of the steel beam (but be careful if this is a wood beam as you'll be point loading your steel flange). I've also notched the top of the joists so they can bear on the bottom flange of the beam, but that's a real pain and we only did it to match a similar, historic, exposed roof structure in the same facility.

phamENG said:

I've also notched the top of the joists so they can bear on the bottom flange of the beam, but that's a real pain and we only did it to match a similar, historic, exposed roof structure in the same facility.

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I spec this pretty regularly (as long as the joists are coming into both sides of the beam) and add blocking between thm. Cheap and easy way to do a flush beam if the GC is on board with it. Have to notch them top and bottom to make it truly flush.

You can also weld simpson hanger to steel if necessary. Knife plate with thru bolts, steel buckets. Many ways.

Thank you everyone for your great answers

I was always reticent to use the bottom flange bearing detail with the sloped end cut for I-joists, but I've had a handful of contractors request that detail so I'm starting to reconsider adding it as an optional typical detail. They say it's easier and cheaper than hangers.

I like the idea of hangers because they provide some nominal twist stability during construction before the floor sheathing is on. To me, this just looks like a construction accident waiting to happen:

I'm not a fan of the bottom flange bearing detail. With the sloped flange I never like how they cut or place the joists.

Solid web blocking is most popular around here followed by top flange hangers with a top flange nailer. I'll use a lot of welded top flange hangers or custom ones for big loads.


Related, but I just went to a house where there was a W12 steel girder with 11 7/8" flitch beams framing into it. The detail was to make custom top flange hangers for the flitch beams.

The contractor installed the beams before the hangers were fabricated. You might think how did they do that. Well, they saw a beam "pocket" and tried to get the flitch beam in there, only problem is that 11.5" flitch plates don't really fit into the clear space on a thick W12. So they took a sledge hammer and beat the shit out of the end of the flitch beam & plates to smash it into the "pocket". 3/4" flitch plates mashed on their ends. Well guess what, that pocket was two web stiffeners below a column coming down from above. The flitch beam was supposed to be hung 3 ft away.

I use half sections of HSS for my post bearing stiffeners, aka “Pocket protectors”