Introduction

Upgrading a timber beam or floor stems from a requirement to improve performance in two interrelated areas. These are:-

1. An ability to sustain a safe working load.

2. An ability to accept deflection.

Present day methods use an epoxy grout to act as the load transfer medium between timber and steel.

From an installation standpoint the ultimate in modified flitch design is the use of standard reinforcing steel bars individually placed into the slot, surrounded by and bonded to the timber with epoxy Structural Grout.

The advantage of this design is the greatly reduced weight of individual bars and ease of handling compared with a monolithic flitch plate (on a typical 6 metre span a flitch plate could weigh 300 kgs).

Practical Details

1. Decide the method of cutting and prepare the slot.

2. Place the bars, using spacers at suitable intervals along the length of the cut and between each bar, maintaining a gap of 10mm.

3. Mix and pour the epoxy grout. This should be carried out progressively from one end of the slot and until the slot is full.

Check out the photo gallery to view pictures of a real job.