Any Carpenters or Framers out there?

[Marsha Walker]

Can anyone help with this problem? I am helping a friend with a remodeling project and he has a wood beam that is 33' long, 5"widex11.5" deep (supported on both ends-basically 3-2x12's)) with a column 11 feet in from one end. It is supporting a single story above (used as two bedrooms) with attic trusses above that. The two rooms above are mostly on the end of the beam that has the column. Can we move the column to the other end of the beam the same 11 feet from the end with out the building falling down? This new location would be very close to where the upper exterior wall falls out. We think the column was just placed there because it was originally used as a garage and thats where the center of the two bays would have been. I cant find any column spacing tables on the internet. Can anyone help? Thanks Marsha

 

[Gary DiPietroSr]

I'm not an engineer but I think that beam should have supports every 8 or 9 feet, plus both ends on a column or wall of course. I'm sure an engineer will pipe up.

 

[Kevin McGowan]

Marsha, the column you are referring to.......is it wood, metal, or decorative?

 

[Chops]

Marsha if you're really serious about possibly moving it, you absolutely need a licensed structural engineer - P.E., to look into it and give you a determination.



No framer or carpenter can give absolute load bearings over the internet.

My advice- don't do it. It's there for a reason. Move it and you've shifted bearing points. It may not be totally needed for the upper rooms, but it is needed to support the roof.

 

[Marsha Walker]

Kevin, it is a floor jack actually. Both end columns are in the walls and are made of wood.

As I said in my post, I believe the column was placed where it is so they could get a car on eack side. Can anyone give me a column spacing out of a table of somesort?

Thanks for the input everyone. Marsha

 

[Keith Lew]

Chops is on target. Get a PE to look into it. Your friend's city will require permits and approvals to affect structural changes as this is. Lot of other issues to consider such as the floor load above it, transfer of load to the floor slab or foundation, lateral forces, etc. Good luck!

 

[Kevin McGowan]

No, those floor jack columns are not there to seperate the garages.......they are there for load bearing wall support. In fact when we do our garages and basements floors.......we pour over them so that they are not moved. Like the other posts above have an engineer look at it...........but im going to say no..........its there for support.

 

[mookie]

General statement (not to be taken as "here's what you can do".)



For single story headers - just supporting the ceiling and roof - it takes a 4X__ with the height of the header equal to or greater than the distance being spanned.



I.E.: An eleven foot opening would require a 4X12 to support the ceiling and roof.



So supporting rooms above is going to require more. How much more an engineer can figure out.

 

[Dreman]

Marsha, I was a P.E. in Tennessee. I am getting the paperwork together to get my registration in Texas. I have designed hundreds of steel and aluminum buildings in my career. I have designed wood structures, but that was a long time ago, and "acceptable practice" may have changed.



Right now I will tell you that you don't want to do that until or unless a local P.E. has signed off on it. There are too many variables (what type of wood, is everything tied together right, local snow load, wind load, floor load, etc.) to make a judgement call like that when doing something to the house that might make it fall down. There are local codes that need to be taken into account to make sure the insurance on the house will cover any damages if something happens, either related to this or not. If an insurance adjuster sees structural modifications and you don't have paperwork to back it up, they can refuse to pay for all sorts of things that seem to be totally unrelated to the modifications you made. A couple of hundred for a P.E. stamp on a redesign is cheap insurance.