I have stripped an interior wall on the ground floor of our 1.5-story house from 1964, and the plan is to be able to remove it (marked in red on the drawing). Eventually, the idea is also to be able to remove the closet wall and open it towards the living room (blue marking). The wall is one of two longitudinal walls in the house, and thus, I think it supports the floor structure. Right under the wall, there is a relatively thick (20cm+) masonry basement wall, and directly above it is kitchen cabinetry. I have removed a raw plank to see the construction inside. The wall itself is original and built from prefabricated "blocks" about 800mm wide consisting of 34x45mm framework timber (i.e., about 77cm c/c on the standing studs) with 17mm raw edge sheathing on both sides = the wooden wall is about 80mm thick. Around the door opening, there is a 34x70mm trim, and it is bridged above/inside the sheathing with a 45x95mm. The length of the wall is just under 3.5 meters, stretching from the exterior wall (gable) to the chimney breast (where Treetex board was basically flush against it!).
If one were to remove the wall and replace it with a beam with a post at each end, how would you calculate the dimensioning in laminated wood versus steel? How do you handle the installation against the chimney breast?
If one were to remove the wall and replace it with a beam with a post at each end, how would you calculate the dimensioning in laminated wood versus steel? How do you handle the installation against the chimney breast?
