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repairing termite damage to beam

steveworks | Posted in General Discussion on April 24, 2004 02:30am

I love termites, they’re putting my kids through school 🙂  But just to make things even I do give free lectures (often) about clearing gutters and getting rid of all that soaking wet mulch around the foundations

But seriously, A client/neighbor of mine just discovered that an 12×12  bearing beam is chewed up about 16″-2′ from the foundation pocket.  I poked around a bit and its in marginal shape. Almost OK but probably need to be replaced.  Of course it is just totally surrounded by steam pipes, conduit and electrical spaghetti.  I was wondering if anybody has ever repaired a beam by injecting it with something like epoxy?  Before I go and spend a ton of their  money I thought I’d see if there are any alternatives.   I could sister two LVL along side and add a new lallly but it would mean rerouting all the utilities.  Anybody have any bright ideas?

Steve

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Replies

  1. UncleDunc | Apr 24, 2004 02:48am | #1

    Is there enough headroom to put a steel beam under the wood beam?

  2. User avater
    RichBeckman | Apr 24, 2004 03:17am | #2

    I agree with Uncle Dunc.

    I had a beam with termite damage at one end with no way to fully determine the extent of the damage. So I duplicated the beam under the beam for six feet and stuck a post under it.

    Pic shows the set up with the temp posts still in place.

    Rich Beckman

    Another day, another tool.

  3. caseyr | Apr 24, 2004 06:24am | #3

    You might take a look at this blurb from Rotdoctor.  I have used their penetrating epoxy and found it to be pretty good and I found their repair info to be helpful.   (West System epoxy has numerous supporters, however, they don't sell a penetrating epoxy, although West Marine does at their boat supply stores.)

    http://www.rotdoctor.com/house/Houtdoor.html#11

    If the beam is marginal, the epoxy should help it, but I don't know just how much.  Reinforced epoxy if properly applied would certainly be stronger than the equivalent volumn of wood.  However, how well you could get it into the required space would determine just how strong it would be.  Perhaps if you didn't want to go the "steel beam under" route, you could add a couple of layers of fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin, which would add considerable tensile strength to the bottom of the beam.  (I recently read that they are now manufacuring composite beams with a layer of fiberglass near the bottom to significantly increase the bending strength.) 

    The repair work I did was the end of an overhanging beam that supported only the eaves and suffered from dry rot.  The beam soaked up considerable of the pentrating epoxy and then I finished it off with a "bondo" type material, which is not my favorite stuff to work with.  In a situation like you describe, I would probably try to do the repair as described on the Rotdoctor info page and then add some fiberglass tape and resin along the bottom.  I think you get quite a bit of strength out of it. 

    1. steveworks | Apr 25, 2004 05:44pm | #4

      Thanks,

      Supporting it underneath would probably work as the load would probably be spread out but I'm still a little concerned about the member eventually crushing.  I think a combo would work well.

      Thanks all

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