I'm designing a new kitchen extension. It requires a steel beam to create an opening in a current external wall. I have designed it to be placed below the ceiling height as shown in the drawing. I want to know if it can be placed above the ceiling, at the level of the floor joists in the existing building. I thought the joists could be propped and the wall propped then the wall knocked out around the joist ends. I assume they are built into the wall. they run perpendicular to the beam. Here are some pictures of the wall. The corrugated plastic is to come away. The opening is about from window to window in this pic. Any help appreciated.
Step 1 is to contact a qualified structural engineer. He will visit the property, assess the feasibility of your plan, and then provide you with the necessary calculations to generate the dimensions of the steel, padstones and so on. You’ll need this information when you contact LABC since removal of part of a load-bearing wall is notifiable and needs Building Regs.
Yes it can. The beam is actually slightly less stressed than before as it's carrying less wall so no redesign is necessary. (Note that you will need to have sized the beam, the padstones and ensured the remaining walls are stable to satisfy BC} It is however a whole lot more complex to physically do with much more scope for error. Also the tiniest difference in ceiling levels will stand out like a sore thumb.
Could you put Strongboys above the joists to support the wall, then support the joists with props, Take away the lower wall, build up the padstones, trim the ends of each joist to be supported inside the beam then place the beam and work from there?
I don't need the two ceilings to be the same, I would have a plasterboards width of boxing around the bottom of the beam to hide any difference. Actually I want the new kitchen ceilig to be slightly higher, just dont want the opening to be 2M low.
In that case why don’t you take down the joists and refit, doing it that way is far less complex and probably won’t cost any more. That way you’re only concerned with fitting the steel to the wall, not the joists and the wall, so potentially you could but the steel at whatever height you want. The joists can then be re-fitted level.