boy, as a builder i'm very used to the pluses and minuses of I-joists. Love your idea, but i would strongly encourage you to hire a structural engineer to pay you a visit. This won't be super expensive, and it will be peanuts if you have any structural failure , or heaven forbid an injury. They would probably address three things : 1/the alum beam itself (capacity), 2/ fasteners (bet it won't be grk's ), and then the I-joists. Posts below mention this, but they are designed for specific loading and load direction. Might be the best money you end up spending on this project.
I'm a custom home framing subcontractor. The TJI are rated for top loading. Sometimes the bottom and/or top cords will separate just in handling. The engineers here won't approve for HVAC units to be suspended from the bottom cord. I'd at least add a scab of plywood on both sides (of a few of the joist near your beam location) connnecting the top and bottom cords. Good video, I was searching for ideas as such.
Glad you liked the video. Good idea to add plywood scabs to the TJI. What products can actually do and what they are rated for are often two entirely different things. My method is a little unconventional, but it's workign great. Thanks for watching.
So is nobody going to say anything about the safety here.... Framing contractor blantently giving you imperial evidence proving this set up to be very dangerous. I have one foot wide old growth floor joist and that would still be questionable.
You could use three 4x4s to make it safer and stronger. Like a crane on each end and in middle just the support when lifting middle one can be moved as needed the house I beam supports are designed for down weight not under pulling . better safe then get hurt.
You should get an Evolution tct chopsaw, they are awesome, cuts clean, super straight, much faster and with 95% less sparks (there are other tct chopsaws but the Evolution are a great mid range saw)
you do realize that TJI joist were not intended to have anything attached to the 2 x 4 on only this will cause them to come disassembled and loose their heavy load bearing. they were designed to hold weight as a unit NOT each component as you are doing! Wish you the best of luck, NOT a structural failure!!!
I do realize that and considered that in my application of the use of them. I could be wrong, but my guess is that the load that I am applying to each TJI is relatively small compared to its capacity. I highly doubt the glue holding the bottom 2x4 to the middle member will let go which means my load is effectively being held by the whole TJI beam and not just the bottom member. Is this a typical application...nope. Is this how they were designed to be used...nope. Is there some risk in this...yup. I get all that. It was a risk I was willing to take. Thanks for watching. I really love having my hoist/crane and hope it works well for years to come.
These trusses are engineered to work as a unit for a particular set of functions. Any application outside of that envelope, will fail. The idea of engineering is to make them as cheap and specific to a purpose as possible. Hanging drywall from the underside is approved. A ceiling fan too, if a bridging bracket is used between two joists. If you pick up an engine, it will fail locally and then, you will hear it and stop lifting. This will damage the joist(s). I doubt that you will be injured. If you continue lifting, it will bring down the entire I-beam starting at the end you are nearest to. The metal on the ceiling will have enough tensile strength to keep things together and again you will avoid injury, probably. Best of luck to you, Sir.
Thanks for your thoughts and the luck and for watching. I'm glad we agree to disagree. It's worked great and hasn't failed locally and I don't think it will. These trusses are also designed for a massive occupancy load of the second floor of which there is almost none. You are right, though, I am using them outside of their original design. I acknowledge that and accept the risk. I like your user name, "rationalguy". That's kind of me at my work, so I guess at home I'm the "Irrational guy". ;) I hope you have a good day and good holiday season coming up soon.
Very good question. I'm sure a bit of that is true. I do think, though, that the glue locks the whole beam together as one solid unit and it may not make a difference to the beam if the load is suspended from the bottom or placed on the top. Maybe I'm just trying to justify my own choice. The 2x3 on the top is mainly in compression and the 2x3 on the bottom is mainly in tension as the joist flexes down. Hmmm...This is a good question. I'm sure others will join in and comment too. Either way, I think a 200lb load per joist is negligible compared to the load they are designed to carry. So I still feel comfortable with it. Thanks for raising a good question.
Hanging anything on an I-joist other than a ceiling is just an accident waiting to happen as they are not engineered for the type of load you are adding. Ceilings are classed as dead loads, and a crane is classed as a live load - two different beasts with different impacts on the structure. They are not engineered for that purpose. They will delaminate sooner or later. Sure, I see your comments that all is well and SO FAR nothing bad has happened, but that is just shit luck as far as I am concerned. Its like going on in the ocean 5 miles in a canoe, and saying, what the hell , why should i worry, I've done it several time before and nothing bad has happened. IMO its very irresponsible of you to put such dangerous content on RU-vid. I just hope that no one copies your poorly conceived ideas and gets injured or worse. It boggles my mind that you completely ignore and dismiss well meaning advice from people having much more knowledge than you on this topic. Do you also believe that earth is flat?
