# Forum Home Renovation Pergolas, Gazebos, Strombellas & Rotundas  beam size for extenda brackets

## Yeeha88

hey all so finally up to building the pergola.
using those extenda brackets engineer specifies a 200x42 lvl spanning 7m however i cant get lvls because apparently theres a few months wait. im spacing the extendas every second rafter at 1800. and there r 240x45 rafters sitting on them with a trimdek roof.
now the engineer changed the 200x42 lvl to a 240x70 mgp10 which to me seems a bit over kill? i was hoping a 240x45 mgp10 would be fine being suppored every 1800. even 900 to be safe. saves laminating beams etc. just seeing peoples thoughts on this?

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## METRIX

A 240x45 MGP has nowhere the spanning capacity of a 200x42 LVL, if the engineer specified what he has specified there is a reason for this.

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## Yeeha88

yes mate i understand that but the 240x45 will be supported every 900-1800 on those extenda brackets. i have used a 200x42 lvl span 3 meters between posts for the front verandah

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## METRIX

My advice is, if you have had advice from an engineer then there is something different about your build, best to go back to the engineer and say this is what I propose, are you happy with it, this way you know it's all good to go.
What anyone on here thinks is good or not is not relevant, if you have had engineer advice best to get the tick from him, that way you can sleep sound knowing it's all done correctly.

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## Yeeha88

yeah ill give him a bell tomorrow. sometimes i wish i was a engineer aswell haha

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## Moondog55

Did you inform the engineer that the spacing of the brackets was 1800mm?
When we did our carport we used 1800mm spacing and the building inspector never even looked at them or checked the beam size, only the rafter size got checked by tape.

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