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What’s fascinating is to see the evolution of engineered wood beams over the past 40 years. If you want to think of worst-case scenarios, think about the things that attack and weaken the beams.
Homeowners or DIYers who are not familiar with working with beams often underestimate the weight of the beam and the importance of the support columns.
In the United States the minimum design floor live loads are stipulated in pounds per square foot (psf) by either state or local building codes. The reason that there is a rather large safety factor built into the floor design is to take care of as many unknowns and imperfections as possible. Just keep in mind that if your aquarium is in the living room then the columns and walls supporting your living room floor are below you in the basement. Well, the builder knew where he was going to put the bath tub so he put extra floor joists there to take care of the higher loads. It seems like there are a lot of people that actually think a person who builds homes can quantify how much load a floor can hold. Another often unrecognized structural concept is that the duration of the load can be a factor in whether a wood structure collapses or not. When structural engineers design the floor of a public building with long spans, they have to be aware that floor vibration due to foot traffic could be a problem. Another characteristic of wood is that sustained loads can cause permanent deflections and these deflections may increase over time.

Many years ago, it was common to make wood joists out of hardwood trees such as oak or ash. I’m getting ready to build a large room addition that needs a beam to support the floor joists.
Laminated beams, mircrolams and so forth are very common now, but I clearly remember when they were brand new.
Lifting a beam often is the work of two or three people, and the combined weight of the workers and the beam can collapse ordinary stepladders, resulting in serious injuries. Building inspectors are mostly interested in whether the construction meets the plumbing and electrical code.
You can paint the steel beams with a metal primer and finish coat of paint to build water resistance. The columns that support the beams must be rated to hold the weight and they must be connected properly to the beams. In fact, you may not realize this, but you can mix the two making a hybrid beam of wood and steel. Wood beams can be treated with borate chemicals to minimize wood rot and prevent infestation by wood-destroying insects that can’t harm steel. This pathway can be two or more stories in a house, and more than 100 stories in a commercial building.
At some point, the weight of the beams and the weight on the beam must be transferred to solid ground.


The good news is that both wood and steel can be used to carry tremendous concentrated loads. They use layers of solid wood that are glued together to make incredibly strong structural engineered timbers.
The flat steel plate usually has staggered holes punched in it and you bolt the wood and steel together to create a super-strong beam that might carry a load four or five times greater than what the wood could carry in the same space.
In the basement of the same house, I had large steel I-beams that spanned nearly 16 feet, supporting enormous loads as well. I say this because you can usually have an engineer come up with a wood beam that can replace a steel one. What fire does to wood is well known, but heat from a fire also can weaken a steel beam, turning it into soft taffy.
You can wrap a wood beam with fire-resistant drywall to protect it, and commercial fire protectants can be sprayed on steel I-beams.

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