I have a customer who converted his garage into living space Probably in the 1970s. When he did this his contractor at the time opened up the wall between the house and the garage about 16ft. Citing that he would need to install a piece of steel to open it up any further. The expense of putting in steel at the time was to much for the homeowner.
Only opening the wall this much left a 5ft wall that breaks up the room in an odd fashion and looks out of place.
This is the gable end of the house and the only bearing is the second floor wall.The customer now wants to take the remaing 5ft of wall out.
The span of a new beam will be about 20ft will a parallam or a couple of microllams be sufficient to carry the load of the second floor wall?
Replies
something like a 6x24 what you had in mind?
What you are providing is about a third of the information needed. The yard you buy from can use the manufacturers software to size the beam for you, but you will need to take more info with you.
To begin, I would assume that the previous contractor engineered it correctly and you will be likely to need steel unless you want a very deep beam.
You mention a second floor - is this from both sides or on the house side only? also, it would be more than just the second floor wall if -
> The secind floor was framed with joists resting on a center beam which also now loads into the center of the one you want to replace, makingh a T. You need to take that info and sizes of all this with you
>If the roof has trusses, it sounds like no roof loads transfer to this beam, but if it has a structural ridge beam, you have more loaads to contend with and you need to know the AHJ roof load requirements and the size of the roof and layout.
>Does the garaged roof run same directiuon as the main house is another consideration.
There may be half a dozen other concerns that only a series of phiotos and/or site visit from an engineer can determine.
Please don't take offense but the fact that you believe you can get a qualified answer from the meager information in your post suggests that you have little qualification for assessing the potential re this beam. far smarter to have the customer foot the bill for an engineer to assess and spec this. Try to wing it and you open yourself up to a lot of liability.
Work smart instead.
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"This is the gable end of the house and the only bearing is the second floor wall."
How do you know that? Just because it's a gable end, that doesn't mean the joists do not sit on the gable end. Did you check to see which way the joists run yourself?
Joe Carola
Edited 1/15/2006 7:26 pm ET by Framer
Like Piffin said - Not enough info given to provide a specific answer.
LVL beams certainly can span 20' But the depth and number of plies varies with the loading on the beam.
I don't design beams for existing houses unless I see the situation first hand. So I'd suggest either an engineer or someone who is capable of understanding the situation and specifying a beam.