Hi All ;

I'm planning to have my ~ 28 year old basement completely
remodeled - just starting to make floor-plans. One obvious issue
is the location of the single jack-post supporting a 24 foot long ,
8 inch steel I-beam - it's central to the I-beam - great !
but .. also directly in front of the stairs and just 6 feet from the
stair bottom - very poor original design, I know ! It makes it
impossible to hide it inside a wall without badly chopping the
basement up. And the location is visually very poor for just
boxing-it-in. My contractor thought that by increasing to 12 inch
I-beam and moving the single jack-post location with proper footing
and Eng. approvals would take care of things nicely.
8 ft ceiling would be reduced I don't disagree but wondered
afterward if we could keep the existing I-beam and install 2 new
jack-post locations if we maintain a 12 foot max. span ?
If anyone has a good web reference - please post the link - thx.
I'm not expecting to get structural engineering answers here -
nor from a web site link - but I wish to propose an informed
proposal - or save the waste-of-time in my idea.
ps: the basement I-beam supports only the floor above and its
roof - not a second floor.
John T.