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Steel (Acro) Props - Needle or Strong Boy?


LeanTwo

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I am installing two steel beams (running parallel to each other) as part of my kitchen/diner extension and it would be helpful to know whether normal practice is to use a needle (as I think they are called) to go through the hole we will be making in the wall and be supported by steel props or if a strong-boy (looks to me like a bracket that goes on the top of the steel prop is better?

 

I've seen a comment that using strong-boys limits the weight that can go on a steel prop to 340 kg.  

 

The wall that is going to be supported is a cavity (50mm) with a 150 mm stone face on the outer leaf.  The full thickness of the wall is 400 mm and we are taking out approximately a 4m length to accommodate the steel beams.  I'm going to place four pairs of steel props, approximately 1m apart.

 

Any thoughts or observations?

 

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+1 to needles if you can, 

you would do well to get a strongboy to catch the whole 400mm wall, also they are not great for anything other than brickwork, unless of course your stone facing has nice straight lines to drill into.

 

might be different if your floor joists go into your internal skin, in which case just prop the joists and stong boy the external skin.......

 

200x100 needles should be fine but you might want to go down to 600-800 centers. the more props the better IMO

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for all the replies.  I eventually installed four pairs of Acros about 800-900 mm apart supporting 100 mm square section steel needles (or pins as they get called in our part of the world!)  All of the cavity blockwork and stone masonry facing has behaved itself!  The padstones are now cast and once a steel plate has gone in over the two beams we can make up any gaps and rest the whole lot back on the beams.  So far so good!

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