Steel - Padstone bearing

V

veritylouise

Hi,

Just looking for some advise - We have just installed a steel into the loft area for a loft conversion - it only sits on the padstones 70mm each side - is this sufficient or will the BO tell us to redo this and the steel should be longer? :!:

Please help... :cry:
 
Sponsored Links
If it's just carrying floor load for a loft conversion, in practice 70mm should be OK.
What really matters is how your inspector sees it.
 
Sponsored Links
That's what we're abit confused about, I spoke to our rsj manufacturer & he has said it shouldn't matter along as you have most of it on the padstones, otherwise you can put some plates underneath the steel above the padstone, say 120mm so it spears the load? I've looked this up and this doesn't seem to be very common, does anyone know about this? I may call our SE tomorrow to see what he thinks we should do
 
The loads on the steel beams will not be very high. The only possible issue the checking engineer will raise will be the slight eccentricity that the shortened steel bearing will put on the wall.

If this issue is raised, it is possible to get round it with a little-known trick. Assuming you can lever the beam up, put a small piece of steel under the beam end, as in sketch 2. If you keep to the dimensions shown, the steel packing will have the effect of moving the centre of application of the load a little further towards the centre of the padstone. The steel doesn't have to be thick - even 3mm will do - just so that it lifts part of the beam end off the pad.

This will reduce the eccentricity of the load on the wall to something like it would be if the beam had the full 100mm bearing.

(BTW, do I see on the plans a steel beam going into a chimney?? That's a definite no-no!).


 
Thank you for the information that's much appreciated, I think that's what we will end up doing, as this will also be the case with the ridge beam we are due to install soon.

As for the steel beam going into the chimney, I did a lot of research to find out that this was a definite no no, and we have moved both steels to the sides of the chimneys - but this makes the floor span larger and timber joist span a longer distance which i'm not sure is ok. I have done research and have read a lot of mixed things, i think it may be ok if we decrease the centres? It will be around 4.8m long, before it was going to be 3.8?
 
Hi,

Just looking for some advise - We have just installed a steel into the loft area for a loft conversion - it only sits on the padstones 70mm each side :
How come the steel ended up being 60mm shy?
Maybe the wall / walls lean slightly. If the measurement was taken at ground floor level and the width of the room is slightly greater at the top then that would explain the discrepancy.

Maybe also the thickness of the plaster wasn't taken into account...
 
You would be crazy to 'guess' an item as important as a steel beam.

I'm fully aware of the differing ways in which the beam length could be measured, i.e. using the drawing, using similar walls elsewhere that line up etc. However, you would be bonkers to not actually set up the situation whereby you would be measuring at the position where the beam would eventually sit.

We are building a complex roof at the mo' and I insisted we arrive at work early enough (still darkish) so that I could use the laser level when checking all the beam measurements. A bit OTT but at least it was treated with the importance it deserved and not some whimsical, frivolous "oh that will do" kind of attitude.
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top