Hello,
Discovered that a previous owner notched the underside of the longitudinal beam in the basement ceiling for electrical conduits (see picture).
The "beam" appears to be 3 joined 45x220mm wooden beams.
The notch is about 2cm deep and 20cm long.
The house was built in the 40s and originally had air floor heating. Along the house runs a "main air duct" and there is one of those thick beams on either side of this air duct. On the longitudinal beam are then cross beams that act as floor joists for the upper floor.
Now to my question: is it okay to notch a beam in this way, or is it something I should address?
I should add that the notching was done quite a long time ago and the house hasn't collapsed, so it can't be the end of the world. But I'm still wondering what the consequences of such a notch could be.
Discovered that a previous owner notched the underside of the longitudinal beam in the basement ceiling for electrical conduits (see picture).
The "beam" appears to be 3 joined 45x220mm wooden beams.
The notch is about 2cm deep and 20cm long.
The house was built in the 40s and originally had air floor heating. Along the house runs a "main air duct" and there is one of those thick beams on either side of this air duct. On the longitudinal beam are then cross beams that act as floor joists for the upper floor.
Now to my question: is it okay to notch a beam in this way, or is it something I should address?
I should add that the notching was done quite a long time ago and the house hasn't collapsed, so it can't be the end of the world. But I'm still wondering what the consequences of such a notch could be.
The consequence of too much notching is that you lose the bearing capacity of the beam. First, the floor will sag. If you remove even more, the beam will break.
The exact load condition for your beam can only be determined by an engineer or over time - and it seems like there's no danger at all. You don't have a bending maximum out there, but there's some shear going there. If you want to know exactly, contact an engineer or read up on beam theory.
The exact load condition for your beam can only be determined by an engineer or over time - and it seems like there's no danger at all. You don't have a bending maximum out there, but there's some shear going there. If you want to know exactly, contact an engineer or read up on beam theory.