Ceiling – Holes drilled in parallam beam: is this a structural problem

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The electrician drilled 3/4” holes on PSL parallam beams. Both beams are is 4”x12”. The first beam measures 13’ft long and the holes are about 3’ft away from the end. The second beam measures 23’ft and the holes are about 5’ft away from the end.

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Will the holes compromise the integrity of the beams? If so, is there any way to fix it or would they need to be replaced?

Best Answer

I'm going to be contrary. Looking at the Weyerhaeuser documentation ( https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/woodproducts/document-library/document_library_detail/tj-9000/ ) PG 26 shows you the allowable hole locations.

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For parallam beams, it's in the center third of the depth and center third of the span. Your holes violate both of those conditions. They don't even mention drilling from the bottom or top, but that's probably a no-go as well. From the same page:

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I think you need to have your engineer look at this. The fix might be as simple as the engineer writing a letter accepting it as is.