Joining RSJ / Steel Beams Together.

mrstaypuft

Hi.
We are hoping to have a extension built to our home and will be requiring RSJs to be installed, at the moment we have a flat roof extension at the rear and want to build up from that.

We have a existing steel beam in place which will need another one attached to it running towards the rear of the house and that one will then be connected to a new one running across the rear window forming an H shape if you looked down on them from above.

SE has said that the beam connecting the two will have to be joined by the web of the existing one because of the load so will have to be boxed round under the celing height.

This is the main thing that I did not want and wanted the joining beam to sit across the top of the other 2 in the celing void.

Can this not be done as wouldnt the load be the same on the beam anyway?

He should know about this as he has done our Planning And Building Regs which have both passed and I have mentioned many times that I did not want another boxed beam.

I feel very angry at the moment as we have spent £2500 on plans and fees since this started last August and to be told yesterday afternoon that the RSJ will be below the ceiling has is not acceptable .

Should I cancel his cheque and get another SE to sort it out as he is not doing what I want him to do?

Any help appreciated.
I stopped smoking in January and have never wanted one more than now!!!!

baldelectrician

Why would you want to stop the cheque?
Has the guy not done any work?

It all hinges on whether you made a condition of the contract;
If you said you wanted it not to be showing and didn't want to progress with it any further unless the RSJ was hidden then you would have more leverage
If you said you wanted the extension and prefered the RSJ to be hidden then you are on a more sticky wicket

You are paying him for his advice- ask him to find a solution that doesn't involve the beam showing.

I suspect you could weld / bolt a bracket onto the old RSJ to prevent this happening

mrstaypuft

Thanks for the reply.

He checked the existing beam in early November and said that it would be fine and has provided me with calculations of how he proved it even though it was close to the limit.
We told him we did not want to see it as the lounge celing would then be cut into 3 different sized sections that is the only thing that I have insisted on.

We called him for planning , paid then waited the 12 weeks or so for approvial.
We then called for the building regs , paid then waited the 8 weeks or so for approvial.
Now last of all I wrote a cheque for the structial calcs yesterday afternoon and was informed that it could not sit on top of the existing one a couple of hours later.

He would not start the structial calcs untill the building regs had passed but now I am worried about what he is doing now as its not what I want.

Gloomendoom

Stop worrying, just get on the phone and tell him what you want.

If don't, you could be looking at the consequences for a long time.

mrstaypuft

I will try to stop worrying but it has really ruined my weekend so far.
I keep thinking that we have wasted a lot of money on something that we did not want and there is nothing that can be done to fix it.