Supports for Beam in Timber Framed House

PPPingu

Hi All, looking for a wee bit of advice and guidance!

At the moment, we are considering removing a load bearing wall to create a single larger room out of two smaller rooms.
The house is 1.5 storey 1978 timber framed house, the load bearing wall is made from 4" timbers, and runs perpendicular to the first floor joists.
We are planning on replacing the wall with an appropriate steel beam (all calculations to be carried out by appropriate engineer, Building Control will be informed, and Building Warrant applied for etc), but at this stage there are a couple of things we want to know before we engage structural engineer & builders (want to go in with our eyes open).
1) The distance that we will be spanning will be about 3.9m, will this need an RSJ/steel beam, or is a timber solution possible? Are there other options?
2) In the information that we have seen, it looks like a beam needs to be supported by brick piers with padstone at the top - is this the case in a timber framed house? Seems unusual to have some brick columns in the middle of a timber house, or can the beam be supported on heavy timber? There is a dwarf wall below the current load bearing wall at the moment.

Any advice and pointers would be very much appreciated at this stage, just so we know what we are looking at.
Thanks,

Furts

Hi PPPingu
3900 is a big span in terms of a house and removing load bearing walls. You are beyond the limit for special Catnic lintels, and similar, so steel would be an answer. I would support this off brick, or block, piers.

Timber frame houses have cripple studs and timber lintels for conventional openings. You are into the area of specialist design beyond most mse users - well certainly me!

A gluelam timber would do the job of a steel. You could discuss this, and the likely costs, with your Engineer. You might want it as a "feature"?

Do check you definitely have a load bearing wall going down to the foundations. Do you have a brick or block load bearing sub structure wall under the timber sole plate?

Be aware your piers would ideally be at least 215mm by 215mm. These, most probably, are too big to fit on your sub structure wall.

Hope this helps.

System

You could ask the engineer about a "flitch" beam - basically a sandwich of steel in between two timbers, a lot easier to deal with than steel, but not sure on span...
Support wise you may be able to use a timber post arrangement but depends on loads - steel posts would be a better solution than brick/block piers.

Furts

the_r_sole wrote: »

You could ask the engineer about a "flitch" beam - basically a sandwich of steel in between two timbers, a lot easier to deal with than steel, but not sure on span...
Support wise you may be able to use a timber post arrangement but depends on loads - steel posts would be a better solution than brick/block piers.

Good points. I cannot picture how a flitch beam would assist, but am open to ideas. The steel posts are a good idea. These would fit far better into a conventional wall. The querey would then be fixing to the sub structure. I am then thinking of an elongated baseplate with a number of resin anchors...

System

A flitch gives you better load capacity/span than timber and less than steel. They are easier to handle on site because they are a lot lighter than a steel beam of equivalent length. Also cheaper than steel too, and can be supported on timber studs in some cases...
The posts would likely need a better base than just a single block width, but you may be able to do small footings around the existing wall... And yes, you'd likely be fixing it with resin anchors


Sorry, got confused thought above was the op