Beam Stability

[tomsmith]

For all my fellow construction nerds out there:

Which beam has the greatest stability?

Glulam vs Flitch vs Sister Beam?

 

[tmurray]

It depends a lot on the application and budget. Some things might be better, but overly expensive.

Sister beams are the most cost effective, but they are usually larger and won't support some longer spans. Filtch beams will reduce some of the width, but at a fairly significant cost. An additional issue anytime you use hybrid wood and metal construction is the differential movement of your materials. Wood changes dimensions based on relative humidity, but steel will not. Steel on the other hand will change dimensions based on temperature, but wood will not. these changes can cause some stresses in the mechanical fasteners between the materials. Glulam can be very expensive depending on local availability. However, they do support some fairly long spans and are nice looking if they are left exposed.