How to Repair a Broken Ceiling Beam

The repair or replacement of a ceiling beam is difficult for many reasons. First, the ceiling beams carry the weight of all the floor above. Second, if the beam is in between the first and second floors, there is more to do than just replacing the beam. Third is the difficulty of how to remove the beam from an existing structure. Fortunately there is an easy way to fix a ceiling beam without removing it. The assumption in this article is the broken beam is in a ceiling with no access to the top and drywall to remove.

Circular saw
Reciprocating saw
Hammer
16-penny nails
Beam to match the broken ceiling beam

Instructions

- 1
  Remove the drywall the length of the beam and the width of one beam on each side of the broken beam. This size will give enough room to move around.
- 2
  Cut the new beam to length. The new beam can be left 2 inches short of the width of the room. That will give room to maneuver the beam in place.
- 3
  Position the beam alongside of the broken beam. Push the new beam tight to the old beam and even with the top of the old beam.
- 4
  Nail the new beam to the old beam every 12 inches, top and bottom. Offset the top row of nails from the bottom row 6 inches to add strength.
- 5
  Use the reciprocating saw to cut the old beam bottom even with the new beam. Then replace the drywall that was removed in Step 1.

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Ceiling Repairs