load bearing beam

[odyssey624]

I have a small brick cape. There are two small bedrooms 12' X 12' side by side (front to back). The wall between them is a load bearing center wall. The room above is a bedroom, converted from what was an attic, has sloped ceilings, so does not span the full width of the house. The ceiling joists are a 2 X 8's. These are a full 8" rough cut board. I would like to take out this center wall to make the two bedrooms into one larger bed room. But I would like to accomplish this by burying the beam to replace the wall within the ceiling and hang the joists on the sides of the beam. This gives me only 8 inches of useful space depth wise. My question would be, how wide would I need to make the beam and what type of material would I need to use to span the 12 feet, if at all possible. The ceiling joist also span 12 feet from outside wall to center of bearing wall.

[Don_P]

Your supplier can check, but I believe a triple LVL will just squeek by. You'll need to strap across joist to joist over the beam to re-establish the thrust tie you are cutting by coming into the sides of the beam rather than having that tie formed by the lapped and nailed joists. The ends of the new beam must be adequately supported through the floor and to a good footing.

[JWL3RD]

I would install 1 beam @ 3 1/2 " x 7 7/8" paralam beam if you have the help to set it vs the triple lvl's. Typically when you triple up framing members you need to thru bolt them together (assuming you are actually getting permits / inspections)