Connecting Wood Beams

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Wood beams can be found in just about every home. Hi, I am Tim Carter for askthebuilder.com and I want to show you one way to connect two wood beams together.

The end of this wood beam used to sit on top of a short wall in between my kitchen and breakfast room. My wife and I decided to remove the wall to make this space more open. A new beam that spans to the exterior bearing wall was installed along side the old beam.

Structural engineers have taught me, it is best to connect the two beams together using through bolts. This type of bolt goes all the way through the wood and has washers and nuts on each end or a rivet type head on one end of the bolt. I like to use half inch diameter threaded bolts. Because my two beams are so fat, I had to take long pieces of threaded rod and cut them with a reciprocating saw to make the proper length bolts.

Do not use leg bolts for a job like this. Here is one final tip. Make sure you use the right drill bit for the job. The diameter of the drill bit has to match exactly the diameter of the bolt that you are using. That prevents slop up in that connection so that two beams do not slip.

Finally you are going to have to hammer that bolt into position because it is going to be a tight fit. That is a good thing. I am Tim Carter for askthebuilder.com


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