Moving a Structural Load Bearing Joist - Damage?

[agreif]

I am looking at buying a house and had a house inspection yesterday. Little background, ranch home, 32 years old, built by a builder who everybody says has great build quality with solid houses. Problem: the inspector found that the load bearing joist in the basement was off of the load bearing wall. Basically the load bearing joist is in the middle of the hallway(see pic below). How much is it going to be to relocate that joist to the right (looking at that hallway picture) to underneath that load bearing wall? Seems some of the heating and water stuff may have to be relocated a little bit because that joist may move into the area where the piping goes to the ceiling. The span is about 45-50 feet.

http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/basement07.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/basement08.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/basement09.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/basement11.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/basement12.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/basement13.jpg

http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/hall01.jpg

Thanks guys,
Andrew

[roger g]

That connection from the gas hot water heater to the vent above the boiler wouldn't pass inspection where I used to work. Maybe in your area it's okay.
Maybe it's me but I really don't see what's wrong. I'm assuming that you are saying that one or both of the hallway walls are load bearing and one of those walls should be right over the main steel beam in the basement? I don't think so. Those walls are perpendicular to the beam and if my memory serves me right they can be up to 3 feet off their main lower support and I don't think your hallway is more than 6 feet wide. Besides, if your construction is wrong, so is tens of thousands of homes built all over North America. The home I just bought is just like that. I'm assuming that roof consists of rafters and joists and not roof trusses.
At least that's how I see those photo's.

P.S. Never, never go by " he's a good builder". HE may in fact be a great builder but you don't know who he had hired when your house was built.

Roger

[agreif]

That connection from the gas hot water heater to the vent above the boiler wouldn't pass inspection where I used to work. Maybe in your area it's okay.

Can you elaborate on this

Those walls are perpendicular to the beam and if my memory serves me right they can be up to 3 feet off their main lower support and I don't think your hallway is more than 6 feet wide.
Roger

The hallway walls run parallel with that beam. So there is a hump in the hardwood floors going the length of the beam in the hardwood floors. The only reason I noticed it is because the slats had a hump where you could see the two slats humping upward creating a visible gap. So there is a high point right where the beam is. make sense?

Attic pictures
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/attic06.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/attic05.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/attic04.jpg
http://james.jaguar.net/agreif/house/attic03.jpg

[roger g]

My mistake. I meant that they were perpendicular to the joists. You have a joist and rafter roof so you do have a bearing wall and I still stand by what I said. Main beams run down the center of the house and usually directly above that is a hallway. The hallways usually run down the center of a house therefore the main beam isn't usually directlt below the bearing wall. The fact that it is a ranch style means that there isn't a huge amount of weight bearing on it anyways. Why you have a ridge down the centre is a mystery though. The ridge is probably caused by only a few (though very bad) things. Either the center beam has lifted. The outside walls have sunk. The house wasn't built flat to begin with. The floor joists are undersized.
I would get a builder in to check it out. Something isn't right. I really can't see the location of the bearing wall being the problem but I've been wrong lots of times.

Where I am the connection of the hw vent to the boiler vent should be a "Y" plus the hw vent seems to be level and it shouldn't. Angles in venting is good. Also the hw vent seems to be a tad too long also I believe we try to get a little more verticle before angling off. We would try to keep the hw tank as close to the main boiler vent as possible to prevent much horizontal venting. I see some more galvinized pipe(vent?) in the joist space. What is that?
All of this could be completely legal where you are.

roger

[agreif]

Cool, just talked to my dad, a Civil and a PE. He pointed out that the floor joists end at the support beam(see basement 08). So as the outside walls settled a little bit, the end of the joist at the walls settled as well. That created a little bit of a scissoring at that beam joint, which in turn has pulled that area up a little bit. Had they not stopped the joists at the middle of the beam and extended them as far as allowable (someone mentioned 3" bast the beam), I most likely would not have seen that effect. He agreed that roofed is framed such that the weight is on the outside walls, not right at that beam....so again, not a huge concern.

Also, this being dry wintertime, that joint separation of the flooring will be more pronounced then when the hot humid summer hits. These floors are older so this is an effect of the settling.

Here is the gap I am seeing.
http://home.nycap.rr.com/agreif/P1040152.jpg

So you were right, really something that I don't need to stress over. Thanks again, learn something new every day.

Andrew

[Rich]

Huh...totally missed this post. Oh well - I agreed with roger g anyway. Good advice from your father too.