Hello Folks,
In an Inspection today of a 70-year-old reno, I came across what appears to be LVL beams in the attic. The second one is more suspect. Has anyone come across this before?
Welcome, John.
The top pic looks like LVL beams.
The bottom pic looks like dimensional boards.
I’ve seen the both before.
What is your question?
I don’t see any LVL beams in either pick
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Neither do I.
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Don’t look like LVL’s to me either, but if some reason they are… they were used as a retrofit, given that LVL’s weren’t even “invented” until the 1980’s… 30 years shy of the build age.
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Looks like somebody removed a load bearing wall and hung the rafters from above.
Was there support at the ends?
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Hey John, I hope we battle hardened LVL warriors didn’t scare you off.
Did you have a remaining question?
They don’t look like LVLs or Glulams to me either.
And didn’t really start making it into residential construction until the early 90s, at least in Ohio when I worked in the Cabinet shop and got in a number of homes under construction.
I think the concept goes back further than the 80s though.
Yes, a number of times. As long as the support on the ends in adequate, they shouldn’t be a problem.
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I dont see any
Thanks for the input. This seemed more like a retrofit to me. I mistyped the email. The first one is very strange. It is not even attached to anything that I could see.
They probably used it to straighten some sagged ceiling joists, hanging those center blocks down enough to grab the lifted ceiling joists. It looks to be bearing on the exterior wall and maybe it’s got some bearing covered by the insulation on this end?
Anyway, that’d be my guess.
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It would certainly help us to see what is directly beneath these areas!