Hi, I am going to build a garage with 19*19 lecablock. From gable to gable, there will be a hea 240 beam that the joists will be embedded in. My question is about how to support the hea beam on the leca wall. Is it possible to place the steel beam directly on the leca wall, or is something needed between the wall and beam (e.g., wooden batten, cast ledge, or sheet metal) for the beam to rest on?
Warm regards, Jakob
Warm regards, Jakob
This depends on how large the load is on the beam that is to be supported by the lecan. You may need to distribute the load over a larger area. You need to calculate this to know what is required in terms of support for the beam.
Thank you for the answer! I understand exactly what you mean. Now for some follow-up questions. What do you need to know to calculate which support is required? The attic space above the garage will eventually become a bathroom with a floor area of about 4*6.5m. Are there no standard solutions (regarding the choice of material) when placing a HEA beam on a lecamur? Currently, I am considering casting a base as support, what do you think of that solution, Matti_75?
Leca has a compressive strength of 3N/mm2 and your supports for the beam are 190x240 mm at each end if I understand you correctly, which would give 190x240x2x3 = 273600 Newton, so if you place the beam directly on the lecan it can withstand a load of max 27 tons if the load is evenly distributed on the beam.
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You might want to raise the support by a few ten millimeters so that the beam, when it bends down, does not create a crush zone at the far end of the leca block. You might also want to calculate the deflection a bit.
Hello larsbj, thanks for the calculation! If I understand correctly, you can experiment with the load on the leca wall by increasing the support from the original 19cm (but it shouldn't be more than 27 tons of load from the attic, right)? What do you think about how to proceed practically? Place the beam directly on the lecas or on some form of support?
Smart post, I hadn't thought of that at all! So there is even more to calculate (I now wish I had been more attentive in math class at school). Is there any convenient way to calculate the deflection and thereby see if there is any "crushing risk"?