I am looking for a practical way to find metal posts location in a finished basement walls or finished ground floor walls. I am trying to understand how my house was built. I would like to remove a wall to make an open concept kitchen & living.(pictures below). Cathedral ceiling in the living might be an option
How do I find out where the steel posts are located?
The same question goes for any horizontal steel beam that might be installed in a house.
My house is a bungalow, rectangular shape (25'x47')
The trusses look like this:
Apparently the roof sits on the exterior walls only but I suspect that there must be some bearing beam on the ground floor
Here is where I am driving with this investigation
The diagram was created when I did not have access to the house, but now I know what the trusses are like.
Best Answer
Use a compass. The answers that suggest using a magnet are on the right track, but if the steel is embedded just a couple of inches inside the wall, there won't be much "pull" on the magnet.
A compass will swing dramatically as you move it past deeply embedded structural steel. I've done it and it works.