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Wow, that's impressive in a horrifying kind of way. The weight of the RSJ is making me think you're right, I'll get somebody to come round and quote for doing it all properly before taking it any further.
jambon-
Just a small point. We had an RSJ installed as part of an extension - maybe a bit longer than yours. It had to be specced by an engineer before installation and the plans for the RSJ went to the building control for approval. The RSJ itself had to be painted with some ‘special’ fire resistant paint before installation. We managed to get this all relatively ‘cheaply’ but it wasn’t cheap! My point is that you may need some form of certificate etc regarding the beam as part of building control. Might be an issue should you sell the house.
I’m sure others can advise if that is the case. I’m in NI so things may be different here. -
before we had our steels put in, building control also made us dig down to investigate the footings to make sure there was enough there to support the point loading either side of the opening. might not be an issue here but may be another thing to get checked out or at least ask about if you're getting it investigated anyway?
TGR
bigshape
We had a beam not dissimilar to that, it was supported by absolutely fuck all. Make sure you see the ends of yours before you make any assumptions.