Steel Beam and Steel Column in crawlspace ??

[EL-Rebar]

Doe anyone know a good resource to get info for using steel girders and steel support columns for a crawlspace area instead of the traditional CMU block piers and wooden lumber? The house is on a sloped lot and the back part of the foundation is 25 block course high. I would like to avoid having to build such tall block piers, and also if I can use steel there I would have more room to store stuff.

Anyone have experience with use of steel in the foundation supports?

Thanks !!

[roger g]

Wow!!!! 25 block courses high!!!!!! Steel beams were used all the time up in Canada for years. I don't know why it changed back to wood.Probably easy to build on site. We still use steel posts even under wooden beams. Haven't seen block columns in 20 years at least. I'll email an attachment to Rich of something that might help from a 30 yr old book. I don't remember how we figured out what size steel beam we needed but they all seemed to be 8inch "I" beams.

Roger

[EL-Rebar]

The plans called for two ply LVL beams, each is 1 3/4 inch thick and 9 1/4 inch deep. These ar Rosewood Forest LVL girders (RFPI). I dont know how to figure the equivalent steel I-beam. any help appreciated,

I am going to call the city inspection dept to see if they have a problem with using steel vs wood or if I need some engineering stamp on it

[roger g]

Years ago when I worked as a draftsman at a steel company we used to supply lots of steel beams for houses. No engineer stamp and nothing ever fell down. When you think of it have you ever heard of a house falling down into a basement due to the beam,wood or steel, not being strong enough. Anyways as I said before in another post, all beams seemed to be about the same size. Of course back then we didn't get fancy with great big spans between columns. They were always 8-10 feet apart so the beams were always the same. Try going to a steel supplier in your area and see what they supply to the local builders.
It's a shame that we are now so overly regulated and law suit oriented that things have changed. Before when a builder wanted a beam for a house the only thing we ever asked was "how long"? Now with everything done with roof trusses there is even less weight down the centre of the house.

Roger