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Cracked a 12 foot glue lam beam last Tuesday in Tacoma because I trusted the wrong clamp
I was setting a 12 foot glue lam beam over a garage door opening in Tacoma last Tuesday, and I used these old spring clamps instead of my pipe clamps because they were closer to my hand. Halfway through driving the last lag bolt, I heard a pop that sounded like a tree branch snapping, and a 3 inch crack opened up right along the bottom edge of the beam. I stopped everything, put a strap around it to hold the load, and called the inspector before I did anything else because I was not about to guess on a structural fix. He came out in about 40 minutes and had me sister a 2x8 on each side with construction adhesive and 3 inch structural screws staggered every 8 inches. It held fine and passed, but I lost a whole afternoon and a $180 beam, and the homeowner watched the whole thing from her driveway. Learn from my mistake and grab the right clamp even if it is 20 feet away. What do you all keep as a backup plan when a beam cracks mid-install?
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