Concrete Header

house bldr

I am figuring a job cutting a hole through a 9" concrete wall in a church basement between the kitchen and community room.the wall is bearing the joists from the floor above {no roof weight}the joists span about 14' either way of the bearing wall. I will be opening a hole 10' wide and leaving 20" of concrete wall above it as a header.I don't feel comfortable with this as a header as it is an old wall and I doubt it has any rebar.Was thinking of using a large angle iron to help with the support so as not to loose any head room. I hate to cut any higher and add a real header because of issues with the suspended ceiling.Any thoughts as to the strength of this?

mdshunk

That's a hell of a wide opening to cut in with a header that you suspect has no rebar. Seems like you ought to really get your engineer to swing by and throw his eyeball on that.

PipeGuy

MD's right - get an engineer involved. Unreinforced concrete has very little tensile strength.

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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

house bldr

You have confirmed my suspicion. Worst case scenerio I could cut the concrete wall clear to the top and go back with an LVL for a header and build the wall back down.I would be able to remove suspended ceiling on each side of the wall to brace the joists up while cutting.Was just hopeing for an easier way! Oh well like they say, if it was easy anyone could do it!

Tom R

That's definitely your best bet . . .