Concrete beam - setting different cover for top and bottom and sides

I’m pretty new to calcs.com so I hope I’m not missing something obvious, but is there any way to set the concrete cover to be a different value on the sides vs. on the top and bottom? I am using a 24” x 20” beam, and aiming for an 18” effective depth (2” cover on top and bottom). If my stirrups have the 2” cover, I need to use 3 legs, so I’m trying to increase the cover on the sides to 3”. Am I able to do this without causing errors on my 18” steel depth?

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Hi Avi, welcome to Calcs.com ! You aren’t missing anything obvious right now, the calculator only has one global “Concrete Cover” input that applies the same value to the sides, top, and bottom. :smiley:

Here is a quick workaround to get exactly what you need:

  1. Set the main Concrete Cover input to 3". This takes care of your side cover so you can use 2 stirrup legs instead of 3.

  2. Go to the Tension (Bottom) bars table. The Depth column auto-calculates by default, but it is an editable input. You can manually overwrite the formula by typing in the exact depth you need to maintain your 18" effective steel depth.

Let me know if this workaround gets you sorted!

Thanks for the help! This works for what I was using it for.