Bearing on old brick
Bearing on old brick
(OP)
Fellers,
I have a 110 year old brick exterior agriculture building being remodeled into commercial space. We are removing a few interior timber columns and spanning a W18x55 steel beam on the exterior brick wall consisting of 3 wythes of brick. The brick is in good shape and is supporting the timber framed second floor. the architect wants to support the end of the steel beam in the brick wall, the end reaction is about 10 kips. Is this a good idea? i'm not sure what capacity i can figure for brick this old?
I have a 110 year old brick exterior agriculture building being remodeled into commercial space. We are removing a few interior timber columns and spanning a W18x55 steel beam on the exterior brick wall consisting of 3 wythes of brick. The brick is in good shape and is supporting the timber framed second floor. the architect wants to support the end of the steel beam in the brick wall, the end reaction is about 10 kips. Is this a good idea? i'm not sure what capacity i can figure for brick this old?






RE: Bearing on old brick
I would be careful with supporting a steel beam with a 10 kip load on it. It would be much better to provide a concrete or steel column. You could remove the existing brick, fashion a column, then replace a veneer of the brick to maintain "the look".
RE: Bearing on old brick
RE: Bearing on old brick
If you assume a bearing pressure of 100 psi, you could use a 10 x 10 or 8 x 14 Baseplate on top of the wall. To ensure the beam reaction gets into the center of the wall, you could use a square bar centered on the baseplate and on the wall. Both bar and plate should be sized on the assumption of uniform bearing pressure. If the old brick appears to be in good shape, that does not seem like a bad idea.
BA
RE: Bearing on old brick
Fairly often, due to water intrusion and wetting/drying, the interior wythe of a three-wythe coursing will actually be a bit stronger than the exterior wythe. The middle wythe can be like either, depending on the depth of water intrusion, the chemistry of the brick, and the workmanship.
Also, most mortar from that timeframe is lime putty mortar, not portland cement. It is greatly more friable and generally has lower strength.
RE: Bearing on old brick