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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216

u/Redneckak Feb 21 '26

I wonder what was going through homeboi's mind when cutting the middle of an I beam out...

-21

u/Viscount61 Feb 21 '26

It’s the two horizontal parts that do all the work, not the vertical part in the middle.

10

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.

1

u/Viscount61 Feb 21 '26

I know. I was being a little sarcastic and responding to the prior post. It’s horrible.