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Handout 2 - 'Wheelbarrow' Beam Repair
Handout 2 - 'Wheelbarrow' Beam Repair
At a recent talk given by Ian Hume, Conservation Engineer, he made reference to a popular
strengthening detail for decayed timber beam ends which he referred to as a ‘wheelbarrow’ repair as
shown on Photo 1 below.
1
‘Wheelbarrow’ Repair
Assuming that: -
The end of the timber beam in the wall has decayed and the steel shoe does all the work
The beam supports a uniformly distributed load of w kN/m
The beam span is L
Then R = wL / 2
Considering the loads on the steel shoe and taking moments about 2: -
P1 . a 1 = R . a 2 P1 = (a2 / a1) R
P2 = R + P1 P2 = {1 + (a2 / a1)} R
P1 = R / 3 = wL / 6