I am in the process of planning finishing my Basement. There is a S8X18.4 I-Beam spaning 28ft. (room dimensions 28' X 30'). There are 2 metal posts positioned approx. 9ft apart (one of which is in the way of my plan) that I don't think are supported by footers.

Will there be structural problems if I move one of the support posts to create a span of 15.5 ft? The house is 2 storys and based on what I've researched the Live Load is a maximum of 100lb/ft^2.

Please help me to figure this out... I tried to do the calculations on the beam and I'm coming up with a defection of over an inch... I can't imagine that this situation would cause the beam to deflect that much.

Thanks for your help,

Tim Walsh

It might cause that much deflection and you'd be ill advised to move a column without adding something in it's place. Single family homes these days are not over-designed. Builders take every efficiency they can get. I am not going to do load calculations for you and I advise anyone on the site against offering such information, but I can tell you that when you take a column out in your basement, that you need to reinforce the area or you will very likely have unwanted structural consequences such as sagging in the joists or even in worst case failure or cracking.

Have a structural engineer look at it and do the calculations for you.

Most likely there is a good reason for those two poles there (as Aminator said). Without seeing the structure not only at the point of the poles but everything above I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to what would or would not take place.

Most likely the Engineer will sign you off on such a support movement.

Footer could be under the slab flush to the floor since we are talking about a pole. Might be that your slab is thick enough throughout the basement.

Newer houses do have building plans on record BTW at the hall of records/Building inspector depending on where you live. Included in those plans will be hidden structures like footers under slabs, also there would be the beam specifications and all of that which an engineer will be able to work from.

Thank you very much for the excellent response!

I will take this issue up with the Township

Thanks again,

Tim Walsh