Removing Basement Steel Poles

[Danielsxtreme]

I have a modular house on a full basement. The house is 24 feet wide. I am looking to finish the basement. I have the steel poles every 10 feet,down the middle. I would like to take one of them out and put a microlame beam in. So 20 feet beam to beam. To make a nice big room without a beam right in the middle. How do you estimate how big of a beam to get? Or how many to bolt together? I went by a lumber company. He wasn't to sure of himself. He tried to look it up. He was saying bolt two 18" microlames together to support the 20 feet spanded. Is this right? I only have a 7'9" basement concrete to floor joist.

[David Oxhandler]

There is no way to tell from here what kind of weight each pole support transmits to the floor and what the results of increasing that weight might be by dispersing the load to fewer supports and less sq footage of floor.

Part of the answer your looking for depends on the weight of the home, part on the ability of the basement floor to support the weight. Are there footers under the supports? How much more load can each footer accept? Some of this answer depends on the soil type and compaction below the basement.

I think I would try to find the original contractor or another who is versed in setting manufactured homes over basements in your area or an engineer to make the calculations to insure that you dont over shift the load to points that can't properly support it.

[rbonnie]

This calculation needs to be done by a professional engineer, and he will need the installation manual originally issued with the home. Footing size is extremely important, as this incorporates not only the distance, but column support and the weight of both sides of the home, in combination.