Both wood and steel make fabulous load carrying beams. I've used both materials for decades in all sorts of situations. In fact, you may not realize this, but you can mix the two making a hybrid ...

Join the support beam and wood load-bearing post by toenailing them together and attaching two metal T-braces to opposite sides of the beam with galvanized 10d box nails.

Part 4 — More Types of Beams You Are Likely to Encounter Welcome back to the "Behold the Beam" series of articles. In part three (Firehouse®, September 2010) of the series, we ...

Both wood and steel can make fabulous load carrying beams. I’ve used both materials for decades in all sorts of situations. In fact, you may not realize this, but you can mix the two making a ...

Q: I’m getting ready to build a large room addition that needs a beam to support the floor joists. I’ve been told that a wood beam will work, but I’ve always seen steel I-beams in other houses.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons you may want to have an idea of which walls might be load-bearing, even before you’re at the point of calling in a pro.Here are a few things that can help.

The wood species, the grade of the lumber, ... He refused to have any interior load-bearing walls or beams and also wanted a floor that was as solid as concrete with no bounce in it.

Pound-for-pound, a given LVL beam delivers greater load-bearing capacity than the most perfect solid-sawn lumber of the same dimension. ... beams and the flanges for wood I-joists.

Q. I’m getting ready to build a large room addition that needs a beam to support the floor joists. I’ve been told that a wood beam will work, but I’ve always seen steel I-beams in other houses.