I have an old beam in my barn/garage. The building has a second story, so it is the main support for the center of the building. I want to remove this beam because its very old, and replace it with a supporting wall.
How do I do this?
How to replace beam with supporting wall
beambuildingconstruction
Related Solutions
This is the typical structure of a hip-roof:
As you can see, the ridge board, or ridge beam, is holding up the "jack rafters" at the top of the incline.
Arguably the 4 diagonal boards - the hip rafters - are holding up the ridge board on their own, but simply for load bearing purposes, place supports under the ends of the ridge board (and possibly one in the middle depending on length) because structurally speaking, the diagonal supports are in a weaker configuration than vertical ones.
I think it is time to call a structural engineer before you take out any more studs. Once the mistake is made and you take out too many, it may too late to correct the problem or very costly to fix. If it is a load bearing wall, taking out even one without supporting the load above, could be a costly mistake.
Best Answer
I wouldn’t remove the posts. The posts have footings that support the loads from the beam.
If you remove the posts and build a wall, you’ll need to install a footing under the new wall.
I’d just build a non-structural infill wall under the beam.