Structural Steel Reinforcement
KneppKraft is a licensed structural contractor in LA and Orange County, reinforcing, repairing, and bracing structural steel beams, columns, and connections, plus supplemental steel to add capacity where an existing structure needs it.
Steel that carries the building should be repaired by an engineering contractor.
When structural steel is corroded, over-stressed, or damaged, the fix has to respect the load path. As a licensed General Engineering contractor, KneppKraft repairs and reinforces steel beams, columns, and connections, and installs supplemental steel to carry new or redistributed loads.
We coordinate with your structural engineer or can use our own, fabricate and field-install to spec, and tie the steelwork into the rest of the structural repair, when concrete and steel both need attention.
When you need it
- Corroded or section-loss steel
- Over-stressed beams or columns
- Damaged connections & base plates
- Added loads needing supplemental steel
- Seismic bracing & reinforcement
- Steel exposed by concrete spalling
How a steel reinforcement goes
Assess
Evaluate the member, the load, and the cause with your engineer.
Spec
Design the reinforcement or replacement to carry the load.
Install
Fabricate and field-install, weld, bolt, brace to spec.
Protect
Coat and detail against corrosion so it lasts.
The welding is the short part. The shoring is what you’ll notice.
Reinforcing a beam or a column means the member has to come off load before anything is cut or welded. Temporary posts take the weight first, and posts need floor to stand on, so the bay underneath is fenced for the length of the repair, which is longer than the hours a welder is up there. Where that shoring lands is the bigger conversation with a facility manager, and it is worth having before the steel is ordered.
What the building notices is not the same as what the permit covers. Grinding carries further than the welding does, and the smell of hot metal travels further than the work does. Both sit better at the end of a day than in the middle of one, so the hot work goes on the calendar last and the quiet half of the job, aligning and coating, runs the next morning. Where your engineer’s detail allows a bolted connection instead of a welded one, none of that applies and the schedule gets simpler.
- Member shored and off load before anything is cut
- Floor under the shoring out of use for the duration
- Lift or scaffold footprint agreed before the crew arrives
- Hot work sequenced to the end of the working day
- Quiet work, aligning and coating, during business hours
- Bolted connections instead of welded where the detail allows
Recent steel reinforcement work
Common Questions
Do I need a structural engineer before you can quote?
Not to get started. Send photos, we will come look, and that walk is usually enough to tell you whether you are facing a maintenance item or a design problem. What does require a stamped set is the permit, on anything that changes how load travels through the building. So the engineer is a step in the job, not a gate on getting a number from us.
Can you weld inside a building that is occupied?
Yes, and the paperwork around it matters as much as the arc. Hot work in an occupied building means a permit from the property, sparks contained and screened, the smoke detection in that zone covered with the alarm company notified, and a fire watch that stays behind after the crew packs up. Tell us early if your insurer has its own hot work form. Plenty do, and it is far easier to satisfy before anybody is on site.
What welding code governs this work, and who inspects it?
Structural steel welding in the US is governed by AWS D1.1. The welding procedure and the filler metal go into the written scope, so your engineer and the inspector are reading the same document instead of arguing about it afterward. On a permitted job the building department will normally want a special inspector to witness the welds. In California that inspector is engaged by the owner, not by the contractor, so budget a line for it.
Rusted beams: clean and coat, or replace?
Depends how much metal is left. Surface rust on a member still measuring full thickness cleans back to bright and takes a coating system. Once rust has eaten into a web, a flange, or a base plate down at the floor line, you are into section loss and the piece has to be reinforced or swapped out. Your engineer may want ultrasonic thickness readings before making that call.
Steel that needs attention?
Send details or your engineer’s report: we’ll scope the reinforcement.
Request an Assessment