"Christian McArdle" wrote in
t:

Using the 7
beam/support solution, each column (in the middle) is carrying about 1
tonne. With a 4 beam/support (steel) solution is carrying almost 4
tonnes.


Thanks for the replies to everyone.

What I can't work out with your calcs above (and forgive my ignorance on
engineering loads) is how a 16 tonne load becomes 4 tonnes per pillar -
surely spreading the load reduces the overall load. This seems to add up to
48 tonnes? This does show my complete lack of knowledge on this subject.

Basically, this isn't a case of getting a few bits from B&Q to put a
paddling pool on.


Which was why I sought further advice