Need Advise;
Can anyone advise me if a (25 foot long bearing wall) can be completely removed on the second floor of a three story house and be replaced with one long or two shorter I beams resting on several steel support columns to the floor? Then enclose the beam and columns with drywall around them, its a 10 foot high ceiling.
And if so, how far apart should the columns be put?
This is a single old house with a basement, 1st floor and 2nd floor, then roof.
I have removed portions of bearing walls in the past to install doorways, but never an entire wall the length of the entire house.
The basement has one long steel I beam and steel column posts right under the second bearing wall that to be removed, so thats why I’m thinging this method should work.
Thank You Alll In Advance
Bob Austera, Commercial Contractor
Toll Free: (877) 265-9777
http://www.hometown.aol.com/raaustera/myhomepage/business.html
Replies
Sure it can.
All it takes in $MONEY and an engineer.
What Bill said and dont ferget the engineer.
It's not that hard to figure out if you know some basic math. I downloaded the steel beam and column residential load tables. I found them on one of the steel manufacturers associations websites. Simple 1, 2, and 3 story residential buildings are covered with the tables. I designed the support for our open family / kitchen space with these tables. It's 23 feet long and weighs about 400 lbs. I called our local steel supply yard, and told them the various sizes of beams that would work, and they were very helpful. The man there may have had more knowledge specific to steel beams than a typical engineer, and didn't charge for the help. They suggested the lighter, but taller profile. It's been in for about 3 years now. I overdesigned it a few sizes and there is less floor bounce than with the old supporting wall. I also did this in the basement to support the family room / kitchen using the same tables. It was hard to find these tables as these seem to guarded by the engineers. Our local college library also had the hard copy version of the tables.