Hello all,
I am in need of some ideas. I have an older 2 story home with 3 walls (rooms) in the downstairs that I have been kicking around removing for a few years now and I think I am ready. Only 1 wall is load bearing with a 24' span. My ceilings are 9' high so I have some area for nice beams and stay around 8' from the floor. I guess my question is would you go with manufactured wood beams or steel beams and make coverings for them? I realize this is going to be a lot of work, but I just want to open up my floor space and make my downstairs an open floor space (max 1 post in center) but would prefer to not even have that. I am a steel fabricator by trade so I know what type of steel beams I will need to support the load, but the dead weight of the steel beams and getting them in place is my greatest fear. So if anyone knows much about wood beams I would be happy to hear some ideas. Have been looking into manufactured beams along with the old style such as 2 x10 (or) 2 x 12 put together then I could cover them however I wanted. If you have any ideas on this let me know... would like some feedback
I am in need of some ideas. I have an older 2 story home with 3 walls (rooms) in the downstairs that I have been kicking around removing for a few years now and I think I am ready. Only 1 wall is load bearing with a 24' span. My ceilings are 9' high so I have some area for nice beams and stay around 8' from the floor. I guess my question is would you go with manufactured wood beams or steel beams and make coverings for them? I realize this is going to be a lot of work, but I just want to open up my floor space and make my downstairs an open floor space (max 1 post in center) but would prefer to not even have that. I am a steel fabricator by trade so I know what type of steel beams I will need to support the load, but the dead weight of the steel beams and getting them in place is my greatest fear. So if anyone knows much about wood beams I would be happy to hear some ideas. Have been looking into manufactured beams along with the old style such as 2 x10 (or) 2 x 12 put together then I could cover them however I wanted. If you have any ideas on this let me know... would like some feedback