Weld burn hole...should I be concerned?

**FT4NOW** · 03-30-2021, 01:42 PM

When doing my basement wall mod, I noticed some burn through on a weld. I'm not a welder, I'm more of a grinder. Is this something to be concerned about? The location is on the left side of the horizontal aluminum directly behind the wall that is still installed on the picture.

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**xrated** · 03-30-2021, 03:48 PM

Other than it being a very poor welding job (who would have guessed that?), I seriously doubt it's anything to be concerned with as far as structural integrity.

**Wicked ace** · 04-02-2021, 06:57 PM

Because that is only what you can see, what you can't make out without training is lack of fusion, cold lap, or porosity I'm of the mind that it is an indication of very poor training and workmanship and should be corrected and a good representative sample of weld connections examined and/ or tested.

**huntindog** · 04-02-2021, 07:58 PM

While I would not be thrilled with it.... I would not lose any sleep over it. Fixing it would screw more stuff up. Removing that weld and rewelding it... Not a project I would want to do. And I own/use welders, cutting equiptment etc. One would have to disassemble a whole lot of the unit before one could do such a repair. Your pic doesn't show enough to say just what would need to be done.... But welding operations mean molten metal. A real good chance to damage other things, or start a fire.

**Sportsdad60** · 04-03-2021, 06:16 AM

If you seen hairline cracks forming around that hole, then a concern.

**orbiker** · 04-03-2021, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by FT4NOW

When doing my basement wall mod, I noticed some burn through on a weld. I'm not a welder, I'm more of a grinder. Is this something to be concerned about? The location is on the left side of the horizontal aluminum directly behind the wall that is still installed on the picture.

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What is connected to the next stud?

Is it load bearing or just the wall?

What Sportsdad said is important clue. AND are there other welds somewhere else that can't be seen because the welder was setup wrong that day.

Originally Posted by Sportsdad60

If you seen hairline cracks forming around that hole, then a concern.

Safe travels, KEN

**FT4NOW** · 04-03-2021, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by orbiker

What is connected to the next stud?

Is it load bearing or just the wall?

What Sportsdad said is important clue. AND are there other welds somewhere else that can't be seen because the welder was setup wrong that day.

Safe travels, KEN

Not sure if its load bearing, its connected to another horizontal stud. I'll have to poke around some more and look at some other welds. If I didn't do the basement wall mod I never would have seen it in the first place.

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**orbiker** · 04-03-2021, 10:35 PM

Originally Posted by FT4NOW

Not sure if its load bearing, its connected to another horizontal stud. I'll have to poke around some more and look at some other welds. If I didn't do the basement wall mod I never would have seen it in the first place.

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Get a very bright light and take a few pictures of the frame where you can. Then view the pictures on the computer.

Hopefully you won't find or be any more bad welds. KEN

**Frenchy** · 04-26-2021, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by FT4NOW

When doing my basement wall mod, I noticed some burn through on a weld. I'm not a welder, I'm more of a grinder. Is this something to be concerned about? The location is on the left side of the horizontal aluminum directly behind the wall that is still installed on the picture.

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Looks like some apprentice work there, crappy weld but probably not something to be concerned about. If it bothers you enough to fix it, or if you find any cracks or anything, Kimball Midwest I believe makes a spray that keeps anything you don't want catching fire from doing so. You can spray it on a sheet of Styrofoam and hold an oxy/acy torch on it without even discoloring it. Just make sure nothings butted up to the back side, and you could even take an oscillating cutter to remove small sections of wood right on the weld and glue back after. The farm I used to work for had a bunch of aluminum grain trailers with wood decks and side bracing, and every season we had to pull each one in the shop and weld up all the cracks. Never had to cut the wood out, but the anti-heat spray works wonders