Replacing chimney with lally column

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Jeremy723

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I'm planning to take down the rest of our interior, non used chimney in a few weeks. As I look at it more and more a joist, which has several others tied to it, appears to rest on the chimney, and the section below this point on the chimney is wider than above.

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Mapping out the joists I quite confident I need a lally column at the far corner where the chimney and the (I believe) end of the beam are, and I went to a neighbor who doesn't have a chimney in the same location, and she, indeed, has a lally column there.

The problem is the only possible place to locate a jack post while I'm working is a very tight fit. The chimney is nearly 2 feet wide so I believe the joist rests on the chimney for 2 feet of its length. I'm considering putting in a jack post where I can/if I can, then trying to remove only the far chimney section of that side the joist is resting on, put the beam in and then remove the rest.

I have to think that a small footprint of bricks stacked up to that height would support as much as the bigger footprint currently is.

I am considering hiring an engineer or just leaving the basement section, but am trying to figure out if it even seems possible first.
 

Dana

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It's a code violation to use a chimney as a structural support.

It's a bit hard to see what's going on in the picture- sometimes a sketch of the framing is easier.

If there are joists or bearing walls on either side of the chimney you can drop in a header to support the joists previoiusly supported by the chimney, and sister reinforcing joists onto the joists being used to support the others. (If it's just one joist you can probably get by with a single header and no sistering of the adjacent joists.)

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Jeremy723

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Green double lines are 2 joists doubled. Black lines are single joists. Blue are still plates on block walls. It's an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper, 1 inch per foot, so total area shown is 9.5 by 7.5 feet.

It's the green dashed line that appears to rest on the chimney. I could probably put a jack post in just to the right of the chimney where the 2 double joists come together, than replace with a lally column at the end of the joist over the chimney once removed.
 
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Jeremy723

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Any suggestions? I bought a lally column yesterday and am going to try to fit it to the right of the chimney, where the 2 double joists meet, just to see if I can get it there.
 

Dana

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The lally column doesn't have to be exactly at the intersection of the doubled-up joists to be effective, just being close should be good enough. If the doubled up joists perpendicular to one another are just nailed to each other it might be worth lag-screwing them or even adding an angle-iron on the internal corner and lag screwing each to the angle iron to keep them from separating if lally column ever leans or slips (as it might during an earthquake.)

In the original picture it appears that the doubled-up joist is being supported by a stud. Sistering-on another stud would be about as good as adding a lally column.
 

Jeremy723

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The joist that appears to be supporting the doubled up joist is just a nailing surface for the side wall of the stairs as best as I can tell. It does not extend all the way to the floor.

This is the best location I could put it in. It's squarely under the double joist coming in from the right, and under most of the first joist coming at it from the "front" of the photo. I like the idea of a metal bracket lag screwed into the 2 double joists. I'll work on that this demo.

Chimney demo starts in 1.5 weeks!
 
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Dana

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Even if it's not a full-depth sistered-on joist it's still providing substantial structural strength (even if it's just a 2 x 4). If there's room to sister a 2x4 onto the joist right at the sub-floor that too will do a lot. An I-joist doesn't need a web anywhere near as stout as a 2 x 10 to have a quite a lot of strength.
 
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