"Robert Allison" wrote in message

...As far as what it will cost, if you do the legwork (make accurate
drawings, take a lot of photos of both the foundation under the support
posts and the floor above and the situation itself) then the engineer can
design a system for you without having to do all of that himself....


That sounds like a good idea. I can tear out a foot or so of the drywall on
the ceiling on either side of the bearing wall and remove a foot of drywall
on the side walls both directions. Then take pictures of everything
including the crawl space under all this. Then provide this along with
measurements to the engineer.

Note: Under all this is are TREE TRUNKS! This is an old house built in the
1930's. For support beams under the house... Under each outside wall and
under each bearing wall, there is an entire 11 inch round tree trunk with
the top side sawed flat and pier supports under it. Actually there are
already pier supports at both ends of where the bearing wall ends (Where
supports for a beam would go).

The 2nd floor (1st floor ceiling) has closely spaced 2 x 4 joists resting on
this bearing wall (the 2 x 4's span 10 ft.). And not evenly spaced either. I
don't think this is enough support (I would think 2 x 6's would be better),
but the house is still standing - just "creaks" a bit when walking upstairs!

Note that the upstairs sub-floor is nailed into these 2 x 4's with zillions
of nails. So ripping out the 2 x 4's and replacing with 2 x 6's would be
fun!

I understand that I would need to support everything on either side before
removing the bearing wall and that I would need to transfer the load down
through the subfloor.