Long LVL Beam Supports Removed

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Below is a current photo in the basement of a new $750,000 house showing a 34 foot 4-ply 12" LVL beam. The beam was originally 3-ply and was supported by three support posts per plans. The homeowner didn’t like the way they looked and asked the contractor if the three posts could be removed. The contractor and his superintendent said OK, she also consulted her brother-in-law three states away who was some type of engineer and the final result was add another ply to the LVL beam and take the posts out.

The contractor had his guy do a final walk through last week and submitted his list. She hired me to do the same this week. As soon as I walked into the basement and saw that 34 foot beam without intermediate supports I had to ask her where are the supports? After she explained what happened I politely told her there is no way in hell that beam can support the design loading with out those supports. When I got back to my office I did a quick beam design check and called her and informed her a 4-ply 24" deep LVLs couldn’t span that far. The contractor is in Florida this week so I told her have someone show me the design calculation to backup this stupid idea. The owner was freaking out because the movers were scheduled to deliver furniture tomorrow. So I had a contractor I know go and install three temporary posts until they get this mess cleaned up. He called a few hours ago and said the beam had already sagged 1 inch before he installed the posts.

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Whatever’s upstairs on that floor structure will end up in the basement soon.

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Home Inspectors are not to practice engineering (the load calculations you have performed). Without a laser or running a string one would not notice a sag of 1in over such span. Especially on a new construction… 99% of home inspectors would not write this up in any way.

So… how could a home inspector spot this as an issue without seeing the floor above collapsing?

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LVL beam size for a 32 foot span:-as per general thumb rule, for a 32 foot span, size of LVL beam or GLULAM should be 16 to 18 inches deep and 4 inches wide , thus you need something like a 16-18″ GLULAM or LVL to span upto 32 feet and can use simple 2×18 dimensional lumber at 16″ apart from centre as floor joists used

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A trained eye (and we should have trained eyes) can detect 1/4" of misalignment over a 60’ span. My experience is that 1" in 34’ is usually obvious, but…on the other hand, you sometimes have to take a hard look to see sags and out of plumb conditions.

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:smiley: …