I have started to tear down an arch on the lower floor of our 1.5-story house.
The arch is not supposed to be a load-bearing structure since it is not included in the plans from when the house was built, and we have steel beams in the ceiling a bit into the kitchen, which are visible on the plans (the arch is marked in red). Moreover, the ceiling goes above the arch.
The arch is built from lightweight concrete, and I thought I would be able to take it down stone by stone, but after removing the plaster, I found that it is a long Leca beam supporting the arch. When I saw this, I began to doubt whether it might indeed be load-bearing...
Now I am considering keeping the beam but removing the roundings underneath, which I have done on the left side.
My question is whether the beam will hold now that I'm cutting away both "roundings." That is, will it now be too far between the posts (240 cm)? Will the beam hold with a support of 25 cm on each side? The beam is 290 cm long, 20 cm wide, and the "posts" are 25*20 cm.
Answering myself here as I read this:
Leca beam 200 length 3000 mm is used as a supporting or just bridging element over window and door openings. Max opening size is 2500 mm at 5 kN/m load on the beam.
So the opening size that for us will be 2400 should be okay provided the load is not more than 5kN/m.
Just talked to the guy who built the house in 1977. The arch is not load-bearing so you can take it down if you want. So we have two choices, either to remove the roundings and keep the beam and drywall it again. Or to tear everything down. It's just difficult to take down such a long and heavy beam, but I guess you can rent some kind of lift.
Not entirely sure about the density of that specific lecabalk, but a new lecabalk in approximately the same dimensions weighs 125kg. It can be easily handled by two men.
I would probably remove the stones above and then try to lift it aside (towards the camera's direction).
True, the problem is probably the height, it's not so easy to carry 125 kg overhead. I think we can manage to carry it out once it's down with two people.
Rent 4 props and place them in pairs on either side of the beam, wrap ratchet straps around it, and tap the beam loose. When it releases, it will sit in a "cradle" of ratchet straps, then you just lower it down. Everything is possible if you're crafty. I managed to separate a 2-piece cabinet (approximately 220x120x80cm) made of solid oak and transport it from the basement, up a slope and onto a trailer. All with the help of some planks, a car jack, and ratchet straps; and a lot of patience, of course.
