I had some advice from the group recently on getting a beam. The
structural engineers I contacted wouldn't get out of bed for less than
=A3250!

I downloaded the SDA product. which worked a treat to calculate the
beam I needed.

Tim


dg wrote:
"Tony Bryer" wrote in message
...
In article , Imm wrote:
In the USA it is common to support brick walls with TJIs.

It's a fundamentally unsound idea. TJI beams have got next to no
lateral stability. This is not a problem with floors because the
diaphragm effect of the floor deck keeps them straight and upright.
If you put a beam under a wall where does the lateral support come
from? In addition the OP wants to take out a wall at ground floor
level and support the wall over with a beam taking ? 2-3 tons which
means that at either end there will be an upward reaction of one
ton
or more on the bottom flange of the beam. There's no way any
checking engineer would let you do this on a ply web beam without
designed stiffeners.

If you can direct us to some span/load tables we might just see
what
would be needed.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
Free SEDBUK boiler database browser
http://www.sda.co.uk/qsedbuk.htm



Although I agree that use of such a beam is a bad idea, it is
interesting to
note the many houses built up to the mid 60's with first floor walls
built
off a single or doubled timber joist.

Walls built off timber from new would settle naturally, but its a
different
matter when retrospectively fitting a timber support in situations
like
this.
=20
dg