On Friday, 5 April 2019 14:51:09 UTC+1, Chris B wrote:
On 05/04/2019 12:39, Dan S. MacAbre wrote:
I doubt it, but I want to saw a big hole in one, so I need to ask.Â* Our
stairs go up the middle of the house, at 90 degrees to all the beams.
There is a breeze block wall on one side, and a stud wall on the other,
which continues down into the kitchen.Â* I'd like to open up the space
under the stairs a bit by removing a big chunk of the stud wall.Â* In the
void, above this wall is a larger-than-the-others beam at 90 degrees to
all the others, and fastened to another very large one in the region of
the top of the stairs by a metal bracket.Â* The beams in one upstairs
room are similarly fastened to this first large beam, so they are
aligned with all the others.Â* I'm assuming that the paramount (I think
it is called) board, and the vertical bits of wood that hold it in place
(about an inch and a half square section) are not supporting this large
beam; but before I start sawing through it all, I'd like to hear some
opinions :-)

I know this description probably doesn't help at all, but is it ever the
case that a paramount board stud wall can support a beam going across
the top of it?Â* I mean, if it ever got wet, it would be catastrophic :-)

Whether yours is or not I don't know but they certainly can be. A
friend has a dormer style house. The main bedroom has a vertical stud
partition wall with "Dead space" behind it - between the stud wall and
the sloping roof (Other smaller bedrooms have the sloping roof
intruding into the room).

Investigations into using the "dead space" has revealed the the vertical
struts in the stud partition wall are helping to support the roof.

Our bathroom had exactly that kind of arrangement. A previous owner
decided to open out the "wasted" space. Soon afterwards the roof
started moving downhill.
The rapidly bodged repair transferred the roof load to a single floor joist
which was not strong enough for the job (instead of about six joists when
the stud wall was doing its job) and the downstairs ceiling
sagged.
We now have steel in all the right places.

John


John