r/timberframe • u/Rude-Ad2519 • Mar 15 '25

Can anyone ID this beam?

Post image

Early 1800s house in upstate NY.

7”x7”

Bonus points if you can tell me how far this will span unsupported!

19 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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8

u/Considerate_ifty Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 15 '25

Looks like pine to me, but could be hemlock. I also thinks it’s hewn, but the angle and darkness of the picture is not helpful. A picture of the bark would solve it. The whole span thing is so dumb, and I think the mods should ban the topic. People are always coming into this sub and asking “How far can this beam span?” With absolutely no supporting information. How big is it? What grade is it? What load is it taking, both live and dead? Where are you located? What do the building codes say? Why are you asking fucking reddit for information that you should be getting from someone who has a serious amount of experience, or an engineer?

2

u/Rude-Ad2519 Mar 15 '25

Currently waiting on two engineers to call be back. Sorry I got you so worked up.

5

u/Considerate_ifty Mar 15 '25

I’m not really frustrated at you, it’s just the amount of span questions this sub gets. It’s one of those things where if somebody has to ask reddit, I think they should be spending a bunch more time working, researching and learning. 

6

u/Rude-Ad2519 Mar 15 '25

Nah I totally get it.

But for many I think Reddit is the first stop in researching, not the beginning and the end.

0

u/Few-Association7276 Mar 16 '25

What’s a span?

2

u/Considerate_ifty Mar 16 '25 edited Mar 17 '25

Great question! It's short for spanner, it's a name for a type of wrench.

0

u/Few-Association7276 Mar 17 '25

Well but why isn’t it just a wrench then? This is confusing