[Cambraupod]

I need to make a beam about 20’ long. This is for a two story house and one of the attached photo shows what I plan to be the final product.

In the pic you see the existing structure. With the new footprint it makes it 20X24. The facing side of the building from left to right is 20’.
I am saving the 24” concrete wall to the left of the door and leaving a 24” concrete wall on the right side of the building.
The remaining 16 feet of short concrete wall will disappear and the full floor footprint will be a big open room.

I want a 20’ beam splitting the house in half with 12’ floor joists resting on perpendicular to the beam.

I want to make my own beam. I have seen a few people make their own glued/screwed beam out of 2X10, 2X12 etc.

How do I make such an object?

Thanks

C

 

[sixeightten]

For anything that long, you will need an lvl at a minimum. Steel is better, but can be difficult to work with.

 

[Biscuits]

Why not purchase one?

I bought a 16' Douglasfir 6 x 12 for my garage a few years ago. Price was around 100 dollars.

 

[Cambraupod]

I could absolutely add one or two posts but don’t want to. What would that look like adding at least one 6 x 6 post?

 

[lenaitch]

Perhaps I'm not understand the pictures; one of a 1 1/2 story house and one of a garage. The first consideration is the size of the beam to support the load, the second is how the load is transferred to the foundation. Maybe somebody here can link to a handy table but I would think an engineer would be handy. If you are in a place that enforces a building code and you are planning on bothering with a permit, they will no doubt expect one.

 

[Cambraupod]

I’m assuming the Douglasfir beam was laminated. I doubt that would be strong enough

 

[Cambraupod]

Out in the country no planning.

 

[House Designer]

I want to make my own beam. I have seen a few people make their own glued/screwed beam out of 2X10, 2X12 etc.
How do I make such an object?
Thanks
C

Constructing the beam is the straightforward part. The difficult part is understanding what loads will bear on the beam, transferring the loads to the footing, the code requirements, and sizing the beam with adequate margins.
I wouldn't depend on a DIY forum to fully understand and correctly size your beam from your pictures. As Lenaitch suggested, I would consult an engineer. It really isn't very expensive (in comparison to what you will be spending on the project,) maybe a couple hundred bucks.

 

[Biscuits]

I’m assuming the Douglasfir beam was laminated. I doubt that would be strong enough

Solid.

There's no way to know what size beam you need based on a picture of slab you posted.

My 1912 2 story house has 30' long, 6" x 9" doug fir beam running the span of the basement.

My point was why cobble together some 2x material when you can get a proper beam for a reasonable price that will be orders of magnitude stronger.

 

[Nealtw]

A 20 ft long long beam is designed by the load. I have seen the smallest as 6x14 micro lam and as big as as 19" high 4 ply LVL and a 20 inch high steel beam.

 

[Cambraupod]

I just ordered a 15x7 Versalam beam. Now I need to figure out how to support it

 

[Cambraupod]

Bought a 5 1/8 “x 15” beam.

 

[Nealtw]

Bought a 5 1/8 “x 15” beam.

4 studs and a king stud each end

 

[Cambraupod]

How bout a 6x6 and a king?

 

[Nealtw]

How bout a 6x6 and a king?

Only once or twice have seen an engineer want more than studs. You want a dry one that is already straight. We can get untreated dry fir 5 1/2x 5 1/2 to fit in a wall.

 

[Cambraupod]

I just want some exposed wood

 

[Nealtw]

I just want some exposed wood

As in sticking out of a drwalled wall? :wink2: