Any House builders out there ?

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div

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Aug 16, 2008
368
10
Connecticut
friend has a 2 story cape .... in the cellar theres a steel beam from one side to the other with 4 lally columns about 7 1/2 feet apart from eachother ... hes putting in a pool table and need to know if he can remove one of the outside columns and still be safe...
 
You really can't answer that on a forum, you would have see it to know if you could. I'd say NO you can't remove one it would double the span on the beam it's holding up. but you might be able to rearrange them to work for the table.
 
Reminds me of my 1st house; down cellar there were cross member beams about 25 ft long, crossing in the middle, with one tree-trunk size timber holding it up in the center. The ants had gotten to it and it was crumbling. I constructed two 16' x 6"x6" (3 2x6's) beams laid out on the floor with jacks ready to put up every 4', sent everyone out of the cellar and knocked over the center post with a sledgehammer, fully expecting the entire house to cave in on me (had a football helmet on, haha!). It did drop about 2" and held, so everyone scrambled back down and we hoisted up the beams and got jacks under them and got good support under the house (there was enough cross beam support - 14" hand hewn timbers, to have both beams pass each other in the middle). Eventually we raised the center of the house about 8" over a year's time to level out the center of the house much better, then remodeled the front room into a beauty parlor for my wife. Minimal wall cracks by turning the jacks only a ¼ to ½ turn every few days letting the house adjust to it slowly. Sold the house after about 8 years, moved to a different county, but will never forget knocking out that center post, holding my breath waiting for the house to fall!
In your situation what you could try doing is having a second ibeam cut to a wider stance than the present distance between support 2 and 3, remove one (say 2) support and put the second beam up, then post 3, giving greater distance between the two but with double the beam support. Consult an engineer or house builder 1st for recommendations, but I think it could be done.
 
yeah so far hes looking at 5-600 for the arct. to come in and say this is what u gotta to then another 1-1.5k to have a liscened contractor come in and execute it. Just to make the insurance company happy with it.
 
Amazing what you'll do when you're 22!
biggrin.gif
 
So how big is this steel beam? Is the steel beam 38' long +/-? What is the thickness of the steel 3/8", 1/2"? Does each end of the beam sit in a pocket in the foundation wall? Why does he have to put the pool table in the basement? Really do need all the dimensions of the beam, also need to know if there is a carrying wall for the second floor directly above the steel. Pictures may be helpful too.
 
Born to & raised by a lifelong self employed carpenter. Where there's a will, theres a way, but get somebody in who knows what he's doing.
Probably involves a laminated beam, some jacks, and a Pro.


Bearcarver
 
I believe I'd ran a chain through a basement window to the support and hitched it to the truck. If there was no window maybe it's time for one. Lots safer than a football helmet.
 
Yeah I tried to get him to grab some photos .. told him it would be easier to looking at it but who knows, hes probable going to have to do what most of you have said and what I told him is to pay someone to come in and do it right so his homeowners insurance covers him on ... he also bought an 8ft table..I told him he myaswell upgrade to a 9ft if hes pulling that column out.
 
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