A question on steel beams.

SillyMonkey

I will be putting in steel beams early next week on the house. They are for the concrete slabs over the open plan kitchen/sitting room at the back of the house.

Got input from everyone including the engineer and am sorted with all the measurements and poudage (as they call it), but was asked by the guys i'm getting the steel from, was there anything needed to be done to the beams before i recieved them. I said I don't think so.

Is there anything I could have missed.

sinnerboy

the steels must be made fire resistant

ask if they can apply intumescent paint for you -to achieve 1/2 hour fire resitance

topcatcbr

they may also need Expamet welded on to recieve a plaster finish. this will depend on how it was detailed in dwgs. (consider how the beam will need to look when finished)

SillyMonkey

The concete slabs are going to sit into the beams so that when finished the beams will not be visible at all.

One Cold Hand

Not sure how that detail would work, but anyway......bear in mind intumescent paint looks terrible. Make sure you cover it.

Slig

One Cold Hand wrote: »

Not sure how that detail would work, but anyway......bear in mind intumescent paint looks terrible. Make sure you cover it.

Actually quite common practice. If its too difficult to fit the slab into the web of the steel you can get steel with a larger bottom flange to accomidate it. Leaves a larger services cavity on large buildings

As for intumescent paint, it works by expanding in the heat to form a foam like layer to insulate the steel. If its covered in plasterboard it actually restricts the amount it can expand and compromises its insulation ability. Also it works best if the heat is applied gradually, if it gets a lot of heat at once then it just burns (e.g. if PB fails suddenly)
Its also expensive so use either PB or IP not both.