Q: My house plan calls for steel beams that will support the floor joists and even parts of a brick wall. Can I substitute wood beams for steel? Is a steel I-beam hard to handle on the job site? Do ...

Q: I’m getting ready to build a large room addition that needs a beam to support the floor joists. I’ve been told that a wood beam will work, but I’ve always seen steel I-beams in other houses. Is it ...

DEAR TIM: I’m getting ready to build a large room addition that needs a beam to support the floor joists. I’ve been told that a wood beam will work, but I’ve always seen steel I-beams in other houses.

The idea of strengthening a steel beam with carbon fiber is not new. Approaches have ranged from coating corroded steel i-beams with carbon fiber and epoxy to a patent by Boeing where carbon fiber ...

Welcome back to the "Behold the Beam" series of articles. In part three (Firehouse®, September 2010) of the series, we discussed the first five of the 13 common types of beams that firefighters can ...

Many renovated buildings replace wood and masonry structural elements with steel. The replacement of heavy wooden roof and floor joists with the lighter steel open-web bar-truss joists is a common ...