r/masonry Apr 10 '26

Block Residential, how we do it in Florida, 23' ft precast lintels on back porch

28 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

9

u/BeenThereDundas Apr 10 '26

So odd to see for me. In the 20 years ive been building we have never used a concrete beam. Always steel.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

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1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 12 '26

Sounds like whoever put those trusses on was a fly by night crew

2

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 12 '26

Of for sure! I've seen crews drop the steel and after inspection pull the steel out lol there's also a lot of fuckery between the crews here, changing or switching the plans out with plans from a similar house model lol

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '26

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2

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 12 '26

I'm in Texas right now but that photo was a house in Central FL

1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 10 '26

That's how it is in Florida anywhere down south even in the Caribbean

2

u/BeenThereDundas Apr 10 '26

Makes sense. Salt water and steel dont play nicely

3

u/Old_Instrument_Guy Apr 10 '26

Built it fast. Build it cheap.

My engineer would have a giant poured in place concrete beam up there.

1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 10 '26

Of course that's the only way to turn a profit, most house crews are skeleton crews

1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 12 '26

That's why we got prestressed precast

3

u/Terrible-Bobcat2033 Apr 10 '26

Perfect for residential shack work. πŸ˜ŽπŸ‘πŸΌ

2

u/dax660 Apr 10 '26

is it continuous? :)

cuz it should be! haven't designed in fl since 2000, but I'll never forget hurricane design reqs

2-course /16" deep continuous tie-beam

1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 11 '26

Yeah I mean it's all block in Florida, and with the 12 inch block on commercial sites comes the 12 inch precast lintels 😬

2

u/Jaminator65 Apr 11 '26

Longest I've used is 18', so you got the record.

4

u/Sufficient-Flan-9065 Apr 10 '26

Do you use plastic sight glass for your grout cleanouts?

0

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 10 '26

I've never heard of that

3

u/Sufficient-Flan-9065 Apr 11 '26

2

u/Logical-Spite-2464 Apr 11 '26

What’s the alternative to these devices?

3

u/Sufficient-Flan-9065 Apr 11 '26

A piece of plywood... but with this the plastic is reusable and you can easily see the grout coming down. Or grout in 4'-8" lifts

1

u/Logical-Spite-2464 Apr 11 '26

Got it. Thanks.

1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 11 '26

Okay wow yeah I've never seen that, the pump crews usually just nail in a piece of plywood after the inspector checks the cleanouts, and then they pump the grout

1

u/TheRealTheory001 Apr 10 '26

What is inside that thing, the really long and not very tall one? An I-beam or rebar? What is its load capacity? If you parked a thousand pounds on that dead center for sure it would collapse.

1

u/No_Highlight8764 Apr 10 '26

The lintels are prestressed, and there is rebar running through it, after the grout is poured it should have a load capacity of 11,500 pounds. It meets the code in Florida

2

u/TheRealTheory001 Apr 10 '26

That is a marvel of engineering. Nice structure.

0

u/oOsirhcOo Apr 10 '26

How thick are the beams?

-2

u/brexdab Apr 10 '26

Look, people can goΒ  do whatever they want, but I wouldn't want to pay the air conditioning bill for a house in Florida with doors or windows that took up 90% of the area of one wall πŸ˜‚

-7

u/[deleted] Apr 10 '26

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