Pitched roof extension and cross wall construction

[Tfg20]

I am in the early stages of planning a rear extension, the house is a 60s build cross wall construction. The advantage is without the load bearing wall at the rear we can easily create a nice wide opening with no additional supporting structure.

I had an architect visit today to discuss some options and he mentioned that for the pitched roof there would need to be a steel support below the first floor window to hang the wall plate off.

This was only an initial discussion with one of a few architects I’m in contact with so when structural engineers and builders are involved I will have a better idea of the actual solution. It just seemed to me that this was overkill, and the weight of that steel spanning 5m would be counter productive. Would something like a flitch plate be more appropriate or has anyone had any experience with similar style houses?

Not a builder myself just interested in what the best/most cost effective solution would be.

 

[^woody^]

It could depend whether a 8" steel beam can be substituted for a 12" flitched beam. Or if a flitched beam will take the eccentric loading.

I don't know why you are worrying over such detail, as an engineer will just design what is necessary or what you want.

 

[tony1851]

Steel or timber, there will hardly be much difference in cost when compared with the overall cost of the exension. Why let yourself get bogged down in details at this stage? There will be more important things to consider when the design is fleshed out.

 

[RonnyRaygun]

If you want to remove the ground floor wall in its entirety you may well need a steel frame with columns and possibly a base beam to ensure lateral support is maintained.

Which obviously is much less cost effective than a single beam, but may well be essential.

 

[Peed8]

Have you progressed your project? What ended up being designed/fitted in the end?