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Had a structural engineer look over my basement support beam layout last week

He spent 15 minutes sketching on a napkin and showed me that my triple LVL was overkill and I could save $400 by switching to two steel posts and a header, has anyone else had a pro totally change their framing plan like that?
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2 Comments
harris.vera
Oh yeah, napkin math is usually the most expensive kind... but in this case it sounds like it saved you money so that's a win. My guy once drew out a whole beam layout on a Burger King wrapper and convinced me to ditch my triple 2x12 plan for a steel I-beam... ended up saving like $300 and the ceiling didn't sag. Guess we're all paying for fancy drafting degrees when we really just need a greasy piece of paper and a pen.
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shane_perry29
Respectfully, I think fancy degrees actually save you from a lot of expensive mistakes.
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