Hi all,
I just had to jump into this topic. Not that I'm any kind of structural
engineer but rather an electrical engineer who took (and pretty much
enjoyed) the required mechanical courses many years ago. Since then, I too
have "honed" my structural engineering "skills" with the various home
improvement shows.
My thoughts on strengthening the broken beam:
Brian Kemp's cheap ASCII art modified:
------------------I--------- sisters 1a (long) and 1b (short)
------------x-------------- original broken board
--------I------------------- sisters 2a (short) and 2b (long)
The basic idea is to span the entire width of the garage with sistering
beams on both sides of the broken beam. Since the 24' length apparently is
not available, use two shorter sisters ( one 16' and one 8') on both sides
of the broken beam staggering the joints between the sister beams.
What is used in my house to span a section that used to be a load
bearing wall is a 1/2" thick steel plate clamped between two wood beams.
More cheap ASCII art:
--------------------I------- sisters 1a (long) and 1b (short)
---------------------------- 1/2" thick by 6" tall steel plate
------------x-------------- original broken board
Obviously using steel would be more difficult, probably more expensive,
and would require that the load bearing walls on either end of this beam
assembly be able to support the weight of the new "beam". From what I've
found poking around on the web, a 1/2" X 6" X 24" steel plate would weigh
around 245 lb. Similar poking around gave me enough info to guesstimate a
2X6X24' as having a weight of roughly 43 lb.
Having thrown in my obfuscating comments, I'll sit back and enjoy the
rest of the interesting and educational ideas.
'til later,
Mark Watson
1965 Ford Falcon daily driver
1956 Daimler Regency Mk II '104' undergoing a long and slooow restoration
plus other newer transportation modules
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