Removing a bearing wall?

[goaliedad]

We have decided to open the floor plan up at the lake house.
Slab construction
Single story, rafters, not trusses
28 feet wide
Currently there is a 6 foot opening between the kitchen and living room. We want to open it to 14 or 16 feet


The house is on one slab. BIL added a garage, attached but on a separate slab. The garage has had a second floor added- it runs 90 degrees to the house. In the garage there are  2 closets- one on either side of the door into the kithchen. SWMBO has suggested opening the wall between the house and garage. This will add two feet to the kitchen

Is there any issue with having the beam setting on two different slabs?
The second story of the garage is setting on the walls of the closet that will remain, so I am ok there 

What size beam do I need for a 14 and 16 foot span

Tia

[Stwood_]

Are the slabs tied together with rebar? You know, drill the edge of first slab and shove in foot long pieces of rebar and leave it hang out into the concrete for new slab.

[goaliedad]

Are the slabs tied together with rebar? You know, drill the edge of first slab and shove in foot long pieces of rebar and leave it hang out into the concrete for new slab.

I assume they are- the work was permitted
 And the slab was done by a concrete contractor. I was not around when the pour was done. This was done 40 years ago and the building does not show any sign of movement

[Stwood_]

You'll need someone to engineer the size of beam you need. Write down all the specifics and take those to your local lumber yard. They usually have someone there that draws up specs and plans, or can get it done.

[Snipe Hunter]

If you permit this, you'll probably need an engineered drawing, calculations and maybe even drawings from the original slab pour for the engineer. Whatever that beam is sitting on, it will need footers. A slab isn't a footer unless the perimeter is poured deep enough to be considered a suitable footer and the new columns are sitting on the deeply poured perimeter. Not sure about your county but here I would need an engineer/architect to sign off on a drawing to get a permit.

The beam size will depend on the load above it.

[srv52761]

If you permit this, you'll probably need an engineered drawing, calculations and maybe even drawings from the original slab pour for the engineer. Whatever that beam is sitting on, it will need footers. A slab isn't a footer unless the perimeter is poured deep enough to be considered a suitable footer and the new columns are sitting on the deeply poured perimeter. Not sure about your county but here I would need an engineer/architect to sign off on a drawing to get a permit.

The beam size will depend on the load above it.

This.
They make LVLs to almost any width, so to get some to support the load is just a look up on a chart.
The issue will be, can the concrete support that load at only two points.

A concrete slab  is not designed to be a footer.  Those need to be the proper width, depth, and cement mix.  

It is not hard to add a footer.  If you are ripping out finish material for the remodel, it is just a concrete saw and some hand digging.  But you should get an engineer to spec the modification.  

I removed one lally column in my basement for a pool table, and my bank and insurance company required it to be speced out.

[Phil Thien]

I assume they are- the work was permitted
 And the slab was done by a concrete contractor. I was not around when the pour was done. This was done 40 years ago and the building does not show any sign of movement

By extending the span you're effectively increasing the load the posts will transfer to two points on the slab.  If that is still within the limits of your slab that isn't reinforced at those points, then I don't think the fact that the beam spans two slabs is any different than a beam spanning two footings of a post and beam foundation.

But I'm not an engineer.

I do agree w/ the post to seek-out your local lumber supplier, they can probably tell you a lot about local conditions (like your cottage is essentially on bedrock and nothing ever moves) and what will work.

[Robert Adams]

I am usually the one that complains when the standard answer for stuff is to pay someone else but this is one of those areas if you are asking here and especially since this includes a second floor then you should find an engineer to go over it. If it was a single story house that would change things allot as you are only supporting the ceiling and roof which isn't a big deal to work out. 

         Now if you were just asking for another opinion to gauge if the engineer is doing it right then no prob. 


             Oh and yeah I hate dealing with stick framed roofs. That's all we have here and they are a royal pain. The word truss is virtually unknown and the only trusses you will ever see here are in mobile homes. I would love to totally rip off our roof framing and put a truss roof on it. Add another 3' to the overhangs etc.

[woodhead]

We have decided to open the floor plan up at the lake house.
Slab construction
Single story, rafters, not trusses
28 feet wide
Currently there is a 6 foot opening between the kitchen and living room. We want to open it to 14 or 16 feet


The house is on one slab. BIL added a garage, attached but on a separate slab. The garage has had a second floor added- it runs 90 degrees to the house. In the garage there are  2 closets- one on either side of the door into the kithchen. SWMBO has suggested opening the wall between the house and garage. This will add two feet to the kitchen

Is there any issue with having the beam setting on two different slabs?
The second story of the garage is setting on the walls of the closet that will remain, so I am ok there 

What size beam do I need for a 14 and 16 foot span

Tia

Try this:

https://www.bc.com/versa-lam-lvl-span-size-chart/




Al

[Cooler]

We have decided to open the floor plan up at the lake house.
Slab construction
Single story, rafters, not trusses
28 feet wide
Currently there is a 6 foot opening between the kitchen and living room. We want to open it to 14 or 16 feet


The house is on one slab. BIL added a garage, attached but on a separate slab. The garage has had a second floor added- it runs 90 degrees to the house. In the garage there are  2 closets- one on either side of the door into the kithchen. SWMBO has suggested opening the wall between the house and garage. This will add two feet to the kitchen

Is there any issue with having the beam setting on two different slabs?
The second story of the garage is setting on the walls of the closet that will remain, so I am ok there 

What size beam do I need for a 14 and 16 foot span

Tia

How do you even know for sure that it is load bearing?  This is not a rhetorical question.   I want to take down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.  It is in a ranch house.  There is understructure in the basement (steel beams and lolly columns).  But this wall is not over any of that structure.  Can I assume it is not load bearing?

In any event how did you determine that  your wall was load bearing?