Hello all,
I am in the process of finishing my cellar and I would like to remove 2 lally columns that are supporting the 1st floor and 2nd floor in the middle of the house. The beam now is made of 3 2x12's and the span is 18' long supporting 2x8x 12' long on top of the beam. What I would like to do is to leave the beam there and add a microlam to each side and bolt and glue it all together. Would this be enough support without any sagging? What would be the size of the 2 beams needed to support the floor? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated? Thank you.

Steve

You need to get all the loads speced and don't forget that the concrete has to take the load too - deeper footings under the posts holding up the ends of the new beam.

This is a design engineering question. 3-2X12's is a substantial beam. Adding a glue lam would help but end support is critical too, not just bolts and glue. We just did a job for a family and decided to leave the columns, clad them in 1X6, added trim and dropped 1 outlet down each column.