Hello everyone, we are new here and currently have an issue with the ceiling and floor in two rooms situated one above the other. We wanted to renovate the ceiling and discovered that the joists were severely damaged by woodworm and need to be replaced. The floorboards upstairs were also in poor condition, so we decided to remove the entire ceiling and floor, exposing everything fully.
The structural engineer advised us to remove the old beams and replace them with glued laminated timber beams of the same thickness, using a rafter spacing of 60cm (24 inches), and then to install either tongue-and-groove boards or OSB panels as the floor. So far, so good.
However, the installers who are supposed to fit the glued laminated beams say they won’t install them because the beams would be too thin. They insist the beams should be 20cm (8 inches) high and 12cm (5 inches) wide, whereas the original solid wood beams measured 16cm x 16cm (6 inches x 6 inches). The wall-to-wall span is 4.70m (15 feet 5 inches).
The rooms were fully furnished and occupied before, and now I am uncertain how to proceed. The structural engineer insists that the specified beams are sufficient and that it is not possible from a construction standpoint to install larger ones.
The structural engineer advised us to remove the old beams and replace them with glued laminated timber beams of the same thickness, using a rafter spacing of 60cm (24 inches), and then to install either tongue-and-groove boards or OSB panels as the floor. So far, so good.
However, the installers who are supposed to fit the glued laminated beams say they won’t install them because the beams would be too thin. They insist the beams should be 20cm (8 inches) high and 12cm (5 inches) wide, whereas the original solid wood beams measured 16cm x 16cm (6 inches x 6 inches). The wall-to-wall span is 4.70m (15 feet 5 inches).
The rooms were fully furnished and occupied before, and now I am uncertain how to proceed. The structural engineer insists that the specified beams are sufficient and that it is not possible from a construction standpoint to install larger ones.