Hey!

I have a situation I have not done before and I can’t seem to find an easy answer … or maybe I should say the correct answer.

I have a small office inside a building.  I plan on using TJI’s for the roof … 11 7/8 “

I have a 14 ft opening on one end. 

Long story short but we don’t know who the wall will be finished eventually … one door .. double doors … maybe a sliding curtain wall to open the office to the shop.

So, easiest way I can find to leave the most options is just to  put up a couple of 16″ LVL beams and we can decided at any time in the future what is going there (16″ as the roof is being used for storage and the beam needs to carry the load of the roof / floor over a 14 ft span).

Problem …  and I would have the same problem if I was going to put a 2 x 4 wall under the end of the TJI’s  ….. so two LVL’s will have a width of 3 1/2″ (same as a 2 x 4 wall).  I need 3 1/2″ of bearing length for the TJI’s.  So if the TJI’s take up the entire top of the LVL’s (or top of the 2×4 wall) where to you put the rim board?

Do I put a spacer between the LVL’s  … or use a 2 x 6 wall ????

Seems like it should be a simple question.  When I look on the web sites, I see TJI’s and rim board sitting on the top sill of a wall … but this does not give enough bearing area.

If it is a wall, I can simply bump it up to 2 x 6 … but what do you do in the case of two LVL’s ?????

Thanks ….. Mike