Wood Beam Clearance

[Chad Fabry]

All the LVL's in the house were installed like this. Apparently nobody told the builder that wood beams are handled differently than steel beams.

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[kurt]

So, New Yorker's are also unaware that one shouldn't jam wood into a concrete pocket without capillary breaks and moisture management.

We apparently have a nationwide epidemic on our hands.

[Chad Fabry]

Old growth pine may have been able to handle that abuse but predigested wood fibers from 10 year old sap wood sure won't. Like the osb webs from your recent post. Oof.

[kurt]

That's right. It's taken nearly my entire career to appreciate the vast difference between old growth timber and tree farm punk wood. Can't do it like this; can't. The stuff goes to compost.

[Jim Baird]

That grouting obviously applied after beam placement makes you wonder just what there is for bearing in there.

[inspector57]

The new mortar makes me wonder if some newbie HI told them to "fully grout the beam pocket" after picking it out of canned comments from the software manufacturer.[:-censore