60ft long steel beams coming in to save the day
Added 2024-04-12 00:35:34 +0000 UTCIf you've ever looked at a house, you'll know that the exterior walls typically sit directly on the foundation (a concrete thing). Well, ours don't. Instead, they are cantilevered about 24 inches over the foundation base, creating a tricky engineering problem to work around!
Small details like these are what make a home so aesthetically pleasing. In order to accommodate seismic upgrades and comply with new codes in our area, our engineer had to figure out a way to preserve not only the cantilevered walls but also the floor-to-ceiling windows and the same roof depth. It was a daunting task.
The solution involved running W10 I-beams across the length of the home (on top of the foundation) and having the engineered roof truss structure sit atop these new I-beams. This method is very different from how most homes are built! I have three pictures here showing the new metal beam, the new engineered roof section, and as a bonus, a detail of our deck!
TLDR: We need steel beams, they are strong. - Nick
