dave weil wrote:

On Tue, 05 Apr 2005 13:48:43 -0400, Howard Ferstler
wrote:

My plan is eventually to take down the
wall between it and the adjacent room, creating a room that would be
about the same footprint as your main room. Of course, I'd have some
extra headroom (literally). But since that wall is a load-bearing
wall, I'm going to take my time doing it.

Use a post in the middle.

Nope. don't want to do that. Who wants a post in the middle of their
room? A good sturdy beam will be sufficient, I think. I'm only
spanning about 22 feet, after all. If I wanted to do overkill like you
did in your room, I'd use a steel beam and sheath it in wood. But I
suspect that I'll just end up using a 6X8 solid wood beam, or
something equivalent. I *could* use a laminated floor joist support,
since they're good for over 30 feet.

As I may have mentioned, my builder removed a wall and used
a beam that, ironically enough, also spanned 22 feet. The
thing was made of three 2 x 18 inch boards sandwiched
together to form what amounts to a 6 x 18 incher, 22 feet
long. Each end sits on a triple header section with five 2 x
4 studs under it. This beam holds up the entire middle
section of the new roof truss array, which is itself made
from 20 to 25 foot long 2 x 8 and 2 x 6 sections on 16-inch
centers. One end of the roof sits on the old rafter section
of the old part of the house (this is the lightest part of
the load) and the other end sits on the new wall, which is
made of 2 x 6 framing, with 2 x 12 headers on edge. The
super beam is in the middle of this span.

Here is the important thing: it does not matter what kind of
beam you want. Your builder will have to conform to the
local code. The inspector who signed off on the job at my
place said that the new roof section was well beyond code
requirements, but that is a good thing, considering that I
am surrounded by 60 to 80 foot trees. Hurricane season is
coming.

Howard Ferstler