Boise lvl beam span tables how to#
Boise lvl beam span tables software#

Use an LVL beam to eliminate twisting and splitting for quiet floors. It is a straight, enough strong wood that fights warping and shrinking, providing great stability for your projects. LVL beam is generally made of thin sheets of wood which are sandwiched and bound with super stronger glue. It helps in better understanding about span and depth of LVL beam.

Boise lvl beam span tables how to#

This article describe about LVL beam span calculator and how to determine size of beam do you need. It is typically used for headers, beams, rim board, and edge-forming material. Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is an engineered wood product that uses multiple layers of thin wood assembled with adhesives. LVL is product of recent innovation they are result of new technology and economic pressure to make use of new wood species and smaller trees that cannot be used to make solid Lumber. Both will account for all the criteria, but I think the way StruCalc does it makes it a little clearer.The American wood Council National design specification for wood, lvl is type of structural composite lumber comparable to glued laminated timber (Glulam). They also divide beams into several categories, where beamcheck just has one. StruCalc has modules for columns (including lateral loads) and footings. Beamcheck also only sizes beams, not footings, posts, etc. StruCalc appears to have more choices, and has all the data already included. I've never liked it that Beamcheck makes you enter the values for LVLs yourself. StruCalc is a little less user friendly interface, but appears to be much more complete than either ConstructionCalc or Beamcheck. That means I had to downgrade my Excel Security settings from High to Medium.

Boise lvl beam span tables software#

Another problem for me is that this software is written entirely as very sophisticated Excel Spreadsheets with unsigned macros. However, I think the loads calculator module, available separately, may be worth buying ($54 as a download) for those of you who have some trouble with that. Well, I've reviews both ConstructionCalc (purchased) and StruCalc (demo, not 100% functional).ĬonstructionCalc does not have all the LVL's I need. Being a PITA does not get your work done faster.īecause I am not licensed I can't get liability insurance nor do I charge as if I was licensed - so as much as I would like to learn how to size beams and footings - I am thinking I might be better off never touching that can of worms. Needless to say his project suddenly moved to the bottom of the pile. I told him I'm not his project manager or an engineer and don't get paid nearly enough to do those services for him and he calmed down. Then he wanted me to put down in writing everything that might go wrong with his project! Then he FREAKED out and started complaining about stuff he was completely happy with a couple days ago. So I told the builder I don't do structural calcs on stick framing. (After some helpful guidance from a resident curmudgeon).

I was trying to do some simple calcs on a simple house but realized I was definitely over my head. This thread is SO timely! I was just wondering about these structural calc softwares.