Basement remodel

letsdothis

I have a 45' x 25' basement that we are finishing and I have a question about the support posts holding up the beam in the middle of the basement. (The house is a one-level ranch.) The beam is 3 2x10's nailed together and there are 3 cinder block columns spaced out over the 45'. They are spread out 10-11' from each other. The one in the middle is in a terrible location for what we are trying to do. What I would like to do is put a jack post on each side of the middle column and then take it out. The two jack posts would be about 8-9 feet apart from each other and they would be even closer than that to the two outside columns. I would then have four support posts but the one in the middle would be gone, which would serve our purpose much better. Is this acceptable to do?

Some concerns I have are:
I believe the column I want to remove is on a footer and the jack posts would just be on the cement floor. Is that an issue?
Does the location of that column matter or is it only the distance between columns that matter?

Thanks in advance for your help!

joecaption

#1 Going to have to have an engineer to sign off on this.
#2 Going to have to get a permit.
#3 Yes it matters. there has to be a footer under the post or it's just going to crack the slab and fail.

letsdothis

Thanks for the reply.

So, you think the post could be moved but we'd need to put a footer under the new posts? That's an option I was thinking about.

mae-ling

Depends on the loads above as well. really best to get it looked at.

letsdothis

Thanks. Would a general contractor be who I need?

hand drive

chances are likely that there is a break in the triple 2x10 beam girder where the column you would like to move is located. if so, the column helps to hold the beam up at the break in that particular spot...

Beepster

You are not going to snap your fingers and move the post to where you want it like moving a sofa. For all the work that will be involved, wouldn't you be better off redesigning you basement to work with the posts as they are?

B

Duckweather

In my 40 years of experience I have never put columns in more than 8' apart with a dimensional stock girder. I have never used jack posts for a permanent column. If you are going to go through the effort of putting in footings, then you might as well use real concrete filled lally columns.