Best practice for connecting existing trusses and rafters to a proposed I-beam header.

[engineer_123]

Cleaning up another engineer's mess. Previous engineer showed insufficient data, such as connections of existing roof framing to I beam, and how I-beams connect together and at concrete base. Their diagram, they have roof framing flush with I-beam, i.e. using hangers. I want the proposed flat roof rafters, and existing trusses to bear on top of the proposed I-beam header and then use a 2x6 Nailer installed on top of the I-beam header, matching the web distance, and use some sort of hurricane strapping & blocking to connect everything together. What have you done for these, I've always used wood headers such as lvl. See attachments, thank you.

 

[XR250]

Man, those drawings are pretty bad. Are they actually done by a PE?
You can make it flush or dropped.
Dropped is my preference basically as you described.

 

[gte447f]

Yeah, those drawings suck. If those were made by a PE, then whoa! Calling out steel sections by width and depth instead of by AISC designation and calling a column an I-beam are a couple of red flags that someone is probably clueless and unqualified.

 

[engineer_123]

Man, those drawings are pretty bad. Are they actually done by a PE?
You can make it flush or dropped.
Dropped is my preference basically as you described.

Yes, a PE made these. You prefer dropped, maybe you can provide some specifics, if the flat roof rafters are 2x8s and the trusses are 2x6s how would you connect these?

 

[engineer_123]

Yeah, those drawings suck. If those were made by a PE, then whoa! Calling out steel sections by width and depth instead of by AISC designation and calling a column an I-beam are a couple of red flags that someone is probably clueless and unqualified.

Yes, a PE made these. And these plans are after the fact, so I believe they did use an I-beam header and columns. You have any advice to clean this up?

 

[gte447f]

Yes, a PE made these. And these plans are after the fact, so I believe they did use an I-beam header and columns. You have any advice to clean this up?

You'll have to be more specific. In general, design the members and connections, and draw the details.

 

[Ron247]

If the flat roof is 2x8s, the PE is calling a flat roof, a flat truss. In my state, most stamps say Professional Engineer, but it does not say what kind of engineer. I think we have an electrical engineer in this case.

Do you mean this has already been built, or is it still in the planning stage?

Is the header allowed to be dropped below ceiling level?

 

[Eng16080]

I agree with the comments above. These plans are rather bad. If this is (or was) new construction, I'm not sure what the "PE" was thinking designating a beam as 6" wide by 15" deep. This would have to be an S section which isn't commonly used in new construction.

And these plans are after the fact, so I believe they did use an I-beam header and columns. You have any advice to clean this up?

If this has already been constructed in part or in whole, the advice is to go there and measure what's actually been constructed. With plans this poor, this could be almost anything.

 

[mikek396]

These plans are comically bad... so bad that this PE should probably be reported for practicing outside his area of expertise

 

[Ron247]

These plans are comically bad... so bad that this PE should probably be reported for practicing outside his area of expertise

In my best impersonation of Dumb and Dumber, "So you're saying he has an area of expertise!"