Columns, Beams & the Load Path
~12 min read · Follow loads from ridge to footing and catch missing bearing, crushed posts and altered members.
Every load in a house — roof snow to piano — must ride a continuous path to soil: sheathing to rafter to wall to beam to column to footing. Load-path inspection is following that chain and finding the link somebody removed, crushed, or left hanging.
The chain
Gravity loads flow: roof → rafters/trusses → bearing walls (or ridge beams/purlins) → floor systems → girders/beams → columns/posts → footings → soil. Bearing walls generally run perpendicular to joists and stack over support below; a bearing situation is confirmed by what sits above and below, not by wall thickness. Every transfer point is a potential finding: undersized beams, over-spanned girders, and loads landing on nothing (the removed wall, the joist bearing on drywall).
- Trace loads member-to-member to soil
- Bearing walls stack over support and run across joists
- Findings live at the transfer points
Columns, beams, and their diseases
Beams/girders: sag (sight along them), crushing at bearing points, inadequate bearing length, splices away from supports, rot at pockets in masonry (probe). Columns: steel posts rust at the base (probe the bottom inch — floor moisture eats them), wood posts rot at soil/slab contact, and the epidemic finding: temporary adjustable jack posts (lally-style screw jacks) used as permanent supports — many aren't rated for permanent service, often stand unanchored on unfooted slab patches, tilted, or unpinned. Footings must exist under every point load: a post on bare slab telegraphs as slab cracking around the base.
- Sight beams for sag; probe pockets and bases
- Rusted steel post bases and rotted wood bases: probe low
- Temporary jack posts as permanent supports = classic finding
- Point loads need real footings — slab cracks confess
Interrupted paths
Remodeling severs chains: walls removed without adequate beams, undersized headers on 'opened up' floor plans (floor above sags along a line), notched-out posts, and cantilevers loaded beyond design (bay bump-outs, deck attachments). Symptoms map the interruption: sagging ridge over a missing interior bearing wall, sloped floor lines aimed at a removed support, cracked finishes above openings. The report describes the symptom pattern and refers span/beam adequacy to an engineer — sizing is not the inspector's call.
Worked example
A flipped 1950s ranch boasts an 18-foot 'open concept' span where a wall clearly once stood (patch line in the ceiling). The floor above dips along that line, doors upstairs bind, and in the basement, the new LVL beam bears on a screw-type jack post standing on the bare slab, base unanchored, with hairline cracks radiating from the spot. Follow the load path.
The chain: second-floor loads → new LVL (adequate? unknown — deflection above says maybe not) → jack post → bare slab (no footing — the radiating cracks are the slab failing as a footing) → soil. Three findings on one path: visible deflection above the beam line (the span/beam question — engineer referral for sizing); a temporary-style jack post serving permanently, unanchored and unrated (replace with a permanent rated column, properly connected); no footing under the point load (engineered footing required — the cracked slab is not one). Frame it as one load-path finding with three broken links, not three unrelated notes; the remodel moved the loads and never finished the path to soil.
Common exam pitfalls
Judging walls bearing/non-bearing by looks.
Check what stacks above and below and the joist direction — then treat uncertainty conservatively.
Accepting a jack post that 'feels solid.'
Temporary screw jacks in permanent service, unanchored or unfooted, are findings regardless of today's firmness.
Reporting symptoms without connecting the chain.
Sag above, post below, cracks beneath — one load-path narrative beats three scattered observations.
Roof to rafter, wall to beam, post to footing, footing to earth — find the link that's missing, rusted, or standing on bare slab.
Recap
- Trace gravity loads continuously to soil
- Transfer points (beam bearings, posts, footings) hold the findings
- Probe post bases and beam pockets
- Temporary jack posts as permanent columns: report
- Point loads require footings — slab cracking betrays their absence
- Remodel-interrupted paths → symptom pattern + engineer referral
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