LVL for Dummy Builders

joist hangers

We think that it's a pretty safe bet that when you find a freelancer giving the wrong definition for a term in the first sentence of the post, you've found a live DotD candidate. Here's a good recipe: take one "motivational speaker" with an AA in English and assign him to write about construction techniques... that's what we found in the case of eHow.com's Timothy Burns and "How to Use Joist Hangers on LVL" at the the mother site.

Burns opens by explaining that,

"A laminated veneer load-bearing (LVL) beam is an item used in home construction. Sometimes referred to as Micro-laminated or Microlam beams, engineered structural lumber has greatly improved home design capabilities..."

We agree on the latter (heck, we're sitting on a floor supported by an LVL as we write), but the first? Is he kidding? The second "L" in LVL doesn't stand for "load-bearing," it stands for "lumber." It just gets worse from there on out. The reason, of course, is that Timothy didn't know squat about construction and couldn't comprehend why someone might ask about joist hangers and LVL; so he went out and found himself a web page that talked about using LVL.

Sadly, he didn't provide that reference... what he did provide were a couple of websites that defined LVL (correctly, by the way) and joist hangers. Then he went out on his own, with dreck like,

• "The LVL beam should be supported by the concrete foundation on each end of the beam, and be supported by steel jack posts as it spans the basement." – Uh, dude, what about framing underneath an LVL?

"Fasten the joist hangers to the LVL beam across the entire length of the span. Position the joist hangers so that the top of the floor joist will be flush with the top of the beam." – Well, not always: lots of designs call for the joists to rest on an lvl beam. That, and most joist hangers are sized to the joist dimensions, meaning that if correctly installed the joist has to be flush. Unfortunately, Tim's lack of familiarity with both lvl and joist hangers meant that he missed the point. Presumably someone wanted to know how to attach joist hangers to lvl, since nailing into the stuff is similar to nailing into plywood. That, and one might reasonably wonder whether you still have to use the "shorty" 10d nails as you do when nailing hangers to 2-by lumber. Our Dumbass of the Day, however, likely has no idea what a 10d nail is, either...

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