Structural engineering question

[fourempties]

I need to support a post, that will in turn support one side of a laminate beam that is going to take the place of a load bearing wall in my kitchen. The framing in the floor that needs to support the post looks like the following (sketch). The "O" is the bearing point needed for my post and the horizontal lines are 2 steel I-beams in the floor of the kitchen (which is above my garage). The vertical lines are the wooden floor joists. My question is this; How can I install a steel beam or wooden lam beam, or wooden I-beam between the 2 steel beams to support the load coming down from the post? The span is 8'.

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[marson]

[RayV]

Get an engineer involved. The existing steel beams were probably only slightly oversized to carry the floor. If the load bearing wall was perpindicular to the joists the load was being spread evenly along the beams instead of concentrated in one point as you propose.

You could always run the post all the way down into the garage and get a bike, or a Mini.

[Pat]

I am confused (but that isn't hard)

If the load-bearing wall goes horizontally across your picture (perpiducular to the joists), that would mean that there is nothing under the wall supporting it, other than the joists.

Does that seem strange to anyone else?

What is over the kitchen?

Are you sure it is load-bearing?

fourempties wrote:

[ameijers]

(diagram snipped)

Chuckle. Yeah, you need an engineer. A point load like this you usually wanna carry all the way down to dirt, with a proper footer under it. If it was basement underneath, it would be no big deal- box in the joists right there, and put a footer and post right underneath. If the span below has to remain clear, you will probably need to add another beam below, tucked into garage ceiling, with posts buried in wall at both ends.

aem sends....

[Ivan Vegvary]

I assume that by "one side of a beam" you mean "one end of a beam". If in fact a structural engineer determines that the existing steel beams can take the additional load, keep in mind that you can span between them at the kitchen floor level as you suggest, and, you can also span 'upon' them at the kitchen ceiling level by placing studs or posts atop the steel in line with the kitchen walls. BTW, if the steel beams are inadequate, talk to your engineer about beefing them up by closing it in (welding) so it becomes a "box" instead of an "I" or "H". Been there and done that.

Ivan Vegvary

[fourempties]

You are correct- the load bearing wall runs on top of one of the floor joists and supports floor joists above it that run the opposite way (perpendicular to the joists below it). The joists above are butted together on top of the wall- thus it is certainly load bearing. There is another story of the house above. Crazy framing -I know, but the house is 85 years old and has an 18" stone foundation wall supportin one end of the steel I-beams in my sketch. the I-beams are 12" deep.

Pat wrote:

[Pat]

Get an engineer. If to take the evenly distributed load and put it on one spot, you will break the beam. If therei's enough room in the garage, you could carry the load down to there. But an engineer might be able to figure some pay to sister a laminated joist in there to hold the load.

Good luck. You'll need it.

fourempties wrote: