Question about builtup girder in 2 story universal

[cedarglen]

I bought the 2 story plans about a year ago and am getting ready to submit them finally. Looking at my options for the girder 6x12 girder I see I can go with a 6x12 beam, glue-lam or a builtup girder from 4 2x12's with the joints staggered 4'. When using the builtup girder option, do the joints have to be over the posts?

Charles

[John Raabe]

No, see this thread about six posts down.

Also, check out the Plans support forum for an update.

[cedarglen]

Thank you for the help. Is the built up girder going to be an item requireing an engineers review? If yes, will the 6x12 solid beam not require engineering? I'm in So. California.

My dept of Building and Safty wants everybody to see an engineer before submitting their plans. When I pushed them a little (and showed them county paperwork stating so) they finally admitted that 1 or 2 story code conforming construction which meets prescribed requirements for joist and rafter sizing is acceptable without an engineers stamp. The person I was talking to there told me that they will use anything possible to require my to go see an engineer. It makes their job easier once an engineer has looked the plans over.

My local department of Building and Saftey is SWAMPED with work (a couple of years back 600 houses burnt in a forest fire, plus there is talk of a morritorium on building to come out soon, so everybody is submitting plans). The last time I was in there I asked about the door and window headers shown in John's plans. He shows double 2x headers and I noticed all houses being built locally were being built with 4x headers.  So I asked "can we do it as shown in my plans, or should I modify them for 4x headers". The answer I got was "If you don't already know that, you shouldn't be working on your own plans."

I'm trying not to bug them anymore before I submit these plans.
thank you for your help.
Charles

[desdawg]

Good for you. Make them do their job. If they don't approve of something they will redline it and then you can make changes.

[glenn kangiser]

Cedarglen, don't forget, in case they do, they are public servants - they are supposed to be busy.  The name of the game is passing liability on to someone else - this case an engineer --- at your expense.

[John Raabe]

Many areas of CA and other states have gone to requiring ALL plans to have engineering stamps. It is a basic CYA move on their part. Local responsibility is up (lawsuits, new energy codes, new earthquake codes, etc.) and tax revenue to hire plan checkers is not going up. This is a way for busy jurisdictions to offload their work.

That said, all the codes (UBC, IRC) have prescriptive charts and other methods of joist sizing, lateral bracing and such that allow buildings to be approved without engineering. Working with a good plan checker is the best way to get them to approve the things that are already there in the codes. Then engineer only those things that aren't covered.

Here's a link to the built-up beam diagram - http://www.countryplans.com/builtupbeam.html