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Posted by tbasc@bellsouth.net on September 10, 2006, 5:02 pm
Paulaner wrote:
> I have a rancher with a finished basement that sits about 6' below
> grade. There are 3 small windows 17x31" at about 6' from the floor,
> and they have semi-circle wells outside of them. It also has a 32" x
> 77" door with a small landing and an open cinderblock stairway of 11
> steps straight out to the backyard.
>
> What I'd like to do is widen this door and stairway. The cement on
> the cinderblocks is 30 years old, and its chipping away, plus its
> looking brown and moldy. If we are going to take the time to redo
> this stairway, I'd like to widen the doorway to let more sun into the
> basement. The doorway faces almost SSE.
>
> Do I need some sort of structural engineer to come talk to me about
> this? Or will a good contractor know how to do this correctly?
>
> Also, I'd like to add a couple more small windows. Possibly one with
> egress capabilities in the guest room. I heard it's best to hire a
> concrete cutting company to do this type of work, can they tell me if
> it's structurally ok to proceed?
>
> TIA
The work you describe should be within the capabilities of a competent
general contractor.
You can do a lot of the research and recording needed for a structural
design:
Measure & record floor plan of the area you want to work on; direction,
size & spacing of floor frame supported by the foundation; same for
edge beams ( the members at the edge of the floor ); any special loads
like walls, columns, equipment, tubs suppored by the floor,
There are a couple of span tables available on the internet for rough
check of structure.
I would have a structural engineer check the proposed arrangement.
Consider it cheap insurance if anything goes wrong.
TB
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