Beam Installation

Flush beam or dropped beam

A dropped beam hangs below the ceiling. It is simpler to install because the existing joists can rest on top of it, and it leaves the floor framing above largely undisturbed. A flush beam sits up inside the ceiling, level with the joists, and the joists hang off its sides in metal hangers. Flush beams give you a clean, flat ceiling across the opening, which is why most people ask for one first.

Flush is not always the right answer. It means cutting the joists back, hanging each one, and dealing with whatever runs through that ceiling, whether a duct, a drain or wiring for the room above. On a long span or a heavy load the engineer may call for a beam deeper than the joists, and then part of it drops below the ceiling anyway. A dropped beam can also be cased in finished wood so it reads as a deliberate feature, which suits some older houses better than a flat ceiling would.

We walk you through the options with the engineer's sizing in hand, so you are choosing between real possibilities rather than a sketch.

Engineered lumber, steel or built-up wood

Most residential beams are engineered lumber, either laminated veneer lumber or glulam, made to consistent strength and straightness. LVL comes in plies that are fastened together on site. Engineered lumber is lighter to handle than steel and easy to fasten to, and for most spans in a typical house it does the job well.

Steel comes in when the span is long, the load is heavy or the headroom is tight, because a steel beam can carry the same load at a shallower depth. It is heavier to move, it needs a wood nailer bolted to it so the joists and finishes can attach, and it takes more planning to get into the house. A built-up beam of dimensional lumber, nailed or bolted together, still has a place on short spans with light loads.

The engineer decides what the member has to be. We bring your priorities to that conversation: how much ceiling height you are willing to give up, whether the beam will be exposed, and what the house will allow when it comes to getting it inside.

The engineer weighs that against replacement, and we give you the choice in plain terms with the trade-offs laid out.

What holds up each end

A beam gathers load that used to spread along a wall or across many joists and delivers it to two points. Those ends are where most of the real work is. Each end needs a post or a stack of studs sized for that point load, and the post has to sit on something that can carry it all the way to the ground.

In practice that usually means going into the basement and looking for a footing under each end. Older basements often have nothing there, or a thin slab that was never meant to carry a column. The fix is a new footing sized by the engineer, poured below frost depth wherever frost can reach it, which in Massachusetts commonly means about four feet, or a properly sized pad cut into the slab. Then a post or lally column goes on top of it.

The building inspector checks this path during the framing inspection, and in many towns looks at the footing before concrete is poured. A beam that looks good on top of a post landing in the middle of an unsupported floor is not something we will close up.

Replacing a sagging main beam in the basement

In many older Massachusetts houses, a single main beam runs the length of the basement, carrying the first-floor joists, with posts at intervals. Over time those beams sag between posts, crack at old knots or splices, or get weakened where someone cut through them for a pipe. Some were simply too small to begin with. The symptoms show upstairs as a ridge or a dip running down the middle of the house, doors that bind and cracks in the plaster above.

Replacing or reinforcing a main beam is careful work. We set temporary supports on both sides and take the load off, then either sister new members to the old beam, add posts and footings to shorten the spans, or remove the old beam and set a new one. Raising a long-settled floor happens gradually, because the house above has adjusted to the sag and will complain if pushed too fast. We tell you up front how close to level we expect to get.

Sometimes the better fix is more support under the existing beam instead of a bigger one. Adding a post and footing at midspan can cut the span in half and stop the sag without disturbing the floor above. The engineer weighs that against replacement, and we give you the choice in plain terms with the trade-offs laid out.

Getting the beam into a finished house

A long engineered beam or a steel member does not turn easily through most front doors. We plan the route before delivery: which window or door it comes through, what has to be protected or removed along the way and how many hands it takes. Floors along the path get covered, corners get padded and nothing gets dragged.

The permit is pulled under Steve's Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License with the engineer's drawing attached, and we keep you posted as the beam goes in, as the posts and footings are set and when the inspector signs off.

Steel takes more of that planning than wood. A steel member may come in sections bolted together in place, or it may need a window opened up and enough people to lift it safely. We work that out ahead of time so delivery day is about setting the beam, not figuring out how to get it through the door.

Once the beam is set and inspected, the finish work begins: the ceiling patched or the beam cased, posts wrapped where they show, and the floor repaired where any old wall stood. We walk the finished room with you so you can see how the structure was handled before it disappears behind drywall and trim.

See the rest of our structural work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.