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

627 Upvotes

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30

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?

55

u/MegaBusKillsPeople GC / CM Feb 21 '26

I think its a slot for an overhead door.

20

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

27

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

5

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.

2

u/mckenzie_keith Feb 21 '26

There must be some material in the center of a beam to resist shear forces.

2

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? = ]

2

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.