California, Maximum beam spans

[sickac]

Hi!

I am planning on removing some loadbearing walls in my house. I took my drawings to Building Department and was told that my beam spans are too long. Person I spoke with was quite nice and helpful, at the same time I could not stop myself from thinking "Does he really know what he's talking about…". He eventually gave me a copy of a table called "Table R502.5(2) GIRDER SPANS AND HEADER SPANS FOR INTERIOR BEARING WALLS - Maximum spans for Douglas fir-larch, hem-fir, southern pine and spruce-pine-fir and required number of jack studs" as a guideline for a new design (it is from 2010 California Residential Code). I have managed to move a few things here and there, so spans do not exceed maximum lengths per table, but I would be much happier without those changes. Can someone confirm that it was the right table to use in this case? Maybe I am misreading it, but the longest allowed span for:

- one floor only

- building width 36ft

- (4-2x12)

is 9'-1". Does that make sense to you? I really mean no disrespect, just want to be 100% certain.

Please, let me know what you think, if needed, I can send PDF with actual drawings.

Thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Sic

 

[Mark K]

Recommend that you hire a structural engineer to assist in sorting out the problem. These tables make certain assumptions that can only be verified by looking at the actual conditions.

No guarantees but a structural engineer may be able to find a solution that does not require that you make the changes you find undesirable.