Hello, I have bought a house with a sagging intermediate floor structure where the beams are 45x145 with a span of 8m. This has resulted in non-load-bearing walls becoming load-bearing and the floor structure sagging. The plan is to place a steel beam across 4 meters to stabilize it. We have removed the floorboards and exposed the beams. How would you reinforce the current beams without raising the floor level more than about 50mm? The idea is to attach 45x195 on the side of each beam and insert noggins in between.
Or should one use glulam or Kerto alternative plywood to reduce the dimension but still make it stiff?
Or should one use glulam or Kerto alternative plywood to reduce the dimension but still make it stiff?
A solution that provides a much better result is the following: Screw-glue a 45x145 timber horizontally on top of the existing beams. Then screw-glue two pieces of timber measuring 45x50 mm at the bottom on each side of the beams so that they look like H-beams. A bit of work but not very costly. An alternative is to insert glulam beams 165x180, in the middle between the existing ones. It's also very good but significantly more expensive. Masonite beams and Kerto-beams are excellent materials, but they require more vertical space.