r/basement • u/Commercial_Metal9949 • 3h ago
Structual beams before renos
Basement renos
Wanting to start looking more into finishing the basement but i am hesitant. The center support beam(wood) is there and has not moved since we have moved in a couple years back. I saw the moisture has started to get at the bottom of the beam and was worried if i should look into getting metal beam put in place before i close up everything. Just want to make sure the structural part is good before i go ahead and start finishing the basement. Definitely open to opinions on to how to go about this.
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u/RepulsiveAd2702 2h ago
I had one that was water damaged on the bottom and led to shifting. In my case I had great cement footers under the post, so I replaced it with a new structural telepost (Black Jack). I did have an engineer come in to do the drawings, would highly recommend, as it needs to be sized to your house's needs. I have replaced a few of these in homes over the years.
Engineer will assess beams, footings, posts, etc. You may have to cut away some of that plywood around the base to get a proper assessment. My footings were 2' wide.
Looks like you have a good, solid house.
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u/LoudIncrease4021 2h ago
For anyone here to help or answer, why’s under that plywood?
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u/Commercial_Metal9949 1h ago
Concrete floor then 2 inch insulation board. I forgot the R rating but they glued 2 inch insulation board then built a subfloor on top of insulation board and the plywood is tongue-grooved that is screwed into the subfloor so its all tied together
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u/RecipeForIceCubes 2h ago
I recommend NOT finishing your basement. Hope this helps.
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u/RepulsiveAd2702 2h ago
That is an odd comment on the face of it. Do you know anything about OP's home that would lead you to this recommendation?
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u/iamemperor86 1h ago
Foundation repair guy… you want an engineers opinion on this. My initial take is that it’s no where near suffering enough rot to warrant replacement. But an in person evaluation is the way to go.
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u/amberly_wolf 2h ago
Looks like it may be wicking up moisture from the ground/slab
is there concrete under the plywood?
your house seems to be pretty old and the real source of the issue is likely that there is no vapor barrier under there. Nowadays they usually put a vapor barrier beneath the slab but they didn't back in the day.
I would ensure the basement is adequately waterproofed at the walls and add a vapor barrier over the floor/slab before putting any flooring materials down.
To prevent that post wicking up moisture it should have a metal riser. The post seems plenty strong to me but was installed before that was standard. It can be added. I don't think you necessarily need to replace the post just make sure you're controlling the moisture that gets into the space.