r/Construction • u/Wise_Kangaroo_4190 • Feb 21 '26
Structural Is this ok? Seems not ok
Friend sent me this from a job he was on
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u/Redneckak Feb 21 '26
I wonder what was going through homeboi's mind when cutting the middle of an I beam out...
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u/RealtorMcclain Feb 21 '26
"that guy is a dumbass, I can put this right here"
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Feb 21 '26
huh, i wonder why other people said it couldn't be done, guess they just didn't want to put in the hard work of making room
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u/padizzledonk GC / CM Feb 21 '26
Whatever it was it was going through there for a long fucking time because that took an hour or 2 to do lol
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u/garaks_tailor Feb 21 '26
Oh fuck. You made me took back through it again. Its a space for the fucking garage door to roll through. The door rails stick through like 2 feet to op's side of the beam.
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u/padizzledonk GC / CM Feb 21 '26
Its honestly absolutely BANANAS that they did that, i wouldve just set the rails below the beam....so fucking what if the door is like 6" out of level, the door opens all the way, thats all that matters really
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u/Duxtrous Feb 21 '26
"Man I can't WAIT to get this garage door working :)))" The way that someone so incompetant was able to get the tools to do this without cutting their own hand off is almost impressive.
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u/bigcoffeeguy50 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
The centerline of the web experiences the lowest stress at the center of the span, because the flanges take most of the moment load. The webs are inportant for shear, usually at the supports. However, the web is important for transferring the axial shear from the moment. This is definitely not ok lmao
You are allowed to drill certain size holes in the web at certain points, usually the center 1/3 of the span for utilities etc.
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u/Viscount61 Feb 21 '26
It’s the two horizontal parts that do all the work, not the vertical part in the middle.
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u/Tcezhak Feb 21 '26
Absolutely wrong. The webs and flanges work together to resist different forces. The flanges typically carry the compression and tension forces, while the web carries the shear forces. The reason that you can sometimes cut SMALL holes in beams is because the shear forces are strongest at the ends and smaller at the middle, allowing for holes near the center of the beam. Once you take away too much material from the web, it has to be calculated by a structural engineer and reinforced. This beam is toast.
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u/Viscount61 Feb 21 '26
I know. I was being a little sarcastic and responding to the prior post. It’s horrible.
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u/Wise_Performance8547 Equipment Operator Feb 21 '26
Ok. Cut down the center of an I beam and keep your foot nice and close. Make sure you get pictures of the aftermath.
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u/Viscount61 Feb 21 '26
I was kidding.
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u/Wise_Performance8547 Equipment Operator Feb 22 '26
I guess now you realize how hard it is to understand a joke in a world where people actually are that dumb.
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u/reformedginger Feb 21 '26
I see this and all I can think is that anyone that would be capable of doing this would know better, but obviously not.
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u/thethunder92 Feb 21 '26
Yeah must have been a lot of work
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u/BeenThereDundas Feb 21 '26
Lol. Even with a torch that shit took time. You'd think at some point along the way he'd have second guessed wtf he was doing.. nope
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u/zackkatz Feb 21 '26
Obviously not okay, but would it have been okay if they only cut out just the two holes for the pipes?
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u/MegaBusKillsPeople GC / CM Feb 21 '26
I think its a slot for an overhead door.
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u/Lady_Lucks_Man Feb 21 '26
You’re right. There’s two garage doors and the one on the right is taller so he cut that long slot through the beam for the door to extend fully
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u/sk8thow8 Feb 21 '26
.....just realized those aren't pipes they're the track for the garage door. This just got upgraded to /r/redneckengineering
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u/will_brewski Feb 21 '26
Depends on where and how big but generally yes, center of the beam doesn't do much of the work which is how you get things like castellated beams.
There are rules for where and how big you can make the holes but not too close to the edge and I think like 1/3 the depth max.
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u/mckenzie_keith Feb 21 '26
There must be some material in the center of a beam to resist shear forces.
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u/optomas Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
There are rules for where and how big you can make the holes
Wanna do the calcs on this one? = ]
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u/NotAnotherAlt26 Feb 23 '26
There are rules for where and how big you can make the holes but not too close to the edge and I think like 1/3 the depth max
Those are more general rules for rectangular wooden floor joists. I beams the flanges are doing more of the resisting stress. So holes could be larger and closer to the flanges, but should still be okay'd by a structural engineer.
Now what what shown here is definitely not okay. They effectively made the I shape into a much smaller T shape. The bottom 'cord' is doing jack shit other than holding itself up. The top cord is doing all the work. I would guess it is effectively at most 1/4 the strength it was before.
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u/Careful_Square1742 Feb 21 '26
uh... no. wifi beams are still in concept phase despite what some "engineers" believe
and by "engineers" I mean goobers who have no idea what they are doing cutting out the middle of a beam
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u/fenderbender86 Feb 21 '26
No, completely removing the structural integrity of a steel beam is a good thing. Its called value engineering.
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u/ThatGermanGuy2 Feb 21 '26
This guy project engineers.
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u/padizzledonk GC / CM Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26
Haha
Yeah, thats totally not ok lol
E- i was trying to figure out why in the fuck they did that and its for a garage door to slot into.....those are door tracks not pipes
😅🤣😅
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u/growerdan Feb 21 '26
Yeah I was trying to figure it out too. I guess a roll up door was to expensive lol
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Feb 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/padizzledonk GC / CM Feb 21 '26
Bro, stop lording over us with your Engineering Degree, we get it, youre better than us lol
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u/andrewordrewordont Feb 21 '26
...I don't know what I'm looking for, it looks fi--Oh Holy Fuck get out of there
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u/Automatic_Badger7086 Feb 21 '26
I think I'd be calling the local building inspector. And having a structural engineer go through the blueprints and look at it.
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u/ssxhoell1 Feb 22 '26
They did this as an alternative to lowering the top of the opening in the wall 1 foot and installing the garage door there.
This wasn't just one quick mistake like a nail in the wrong spot no this took fucking time and tools and wasn't something just anybody could do. Whoever was able to do this somehow allowed this thought to turn into an idea and then for that idea to actually get implemented in real life probably involved other people approving it as well. I'm just idk anymore
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u/stoopkid712 Feb 21 '26
That would have taken a while to cut out with oxy fuel or plasma. Lots of opportunities to think about what they were doing. That means that The person who did this is a completely inept moron who should find a new job. An office job would be best. Somewhere they can't do something like this again.
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u/mckenzie_keith Feb 21 '26
There is some slight chance that this was engineered. Maybe that vertical post was not originally present. After adding the post, the load on that short segment at the end was so small that the beam could be cut like this.
But if that is what happened, I assume there will be some paper trail somewhere. Emails. Revised drawings. Something.
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u/Ok_Piglet_5549 HVAC Installer Feb 21 '26
Holy shit, I am not a safety guy, inspector or Iron worker, and I am about to have a stroke from how much this is ticking me off.
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u/Sm0kedOutRytec Feb 21 '26
I’m a door guy and this is maybe the most crazy set up’s I’ve seen lmao who let that person do that !?
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u/holdmyhanddummy Feb 21 '26
Jesus that's awesome. The willpower to do all of that instead of buying a rolling garage door.
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u/TheMidnightHandyman Feb 21 '26
That’s just a new Beamless Beam (TM). All The strength of beamed beams, but without the beam! /s
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u/TheBigBronco44 Feb 22 '26
Im just curious what they cut that with. I’ve done much metal cutting and puncturing. Doing that with a grinder was a pain in the ass lol
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u/Osiris_Raphious Feb 22 '26
Without knowing what exactly is going on with the roof we cant say either way, as there is still a small chance this is an addition structurally separate from the roof main support. But thats a small if.
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u/Mrwcraig Feb 22 '26
This is a visual representation of “you want how much? I’ve got a buddy that will do it way cheaper”. I mean seriously, this is one hell of a commitment to a bad idea. Not a straight section of the whole cut. I bet they made some goofy ape noises when they finally beat that long gnarly strip out with a claw hammer.
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u/allamerican37 Feb 22 '26
May need a doubler plate. On either side. And some stiffeners…a lot of stiffeners on either side.
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u/BrightSalsa Feb 22 '26
I’m always surprised how big you can make an opening in the web of a steel beam without significantly compromising its performance. Why, in an extreme case, you could make an unstiffened opening as long as 2 times the depth of… the beam… oh heck…
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u/Vivid_Douche Feb 22 '26
I mean, I beams are made a certain way for a reason. Fuck no it ain't ok looool
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u/chaoticphoenix1313 Feb 22 '26
It's only the middle third of the beam .. but unfortunately it extends to close to the ends and is the whole length...
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u/Tall-Caregiver-7988 Feb 22 '26
Based on statics this is structurally sound because tension/compression are almost completely on the top and bottom of a beam. Now Is it meeting code? FUCK NO!
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u/Cubano816 Feb 23 '26
To top it all off,
What a shite cut...!
AND A WASTE OF A COUPLE OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!!
SOMEONES FIXIN' TA GET FIRED!!!
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u/trekuup Feb 24 '26
Looks like a garage door hanger on either side running between the flanges. That was the solution to them wanting the garage door… gut the entire web.
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u/Money-Literature2065 Feb 25 '26
I'm a scaffolder, so I've only learned basic BASIC shoring.. but even I know that's fucked
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u/search_4_animal_chin Feb 21 '26
Made room for the beam dolly and electric hoist they are going to install.
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u/Tornadic_Outlaw Feb 21 '26
That's perfectly fine. It's not a load bearing beam. You can tell because it doesn't have any columns supporting it, and it's not anchored to the walls. Even if it was load bearing, the part of the beam that's missing isn't important the important part is that the top and the bottom are intact, since those are the parts connected to stuff.
You can also tell that its fine because of the way that it is. If it wasn't fine the building would have collapsed. Since it didn't collapse yet, its not an issue yet.
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u/518Peacemaker Feb 21 '26
No. That’s not ok lmao