The Beam Splice

In order to make the view from front entry to deck sliding door clean, that is, free of obstructions like pesky columns, the architect chose to move the columns supporting the central beam to either side of the view.  Structurally, this would have been easy, but one of the existing columns was in place to support a splice in the beam as shown below:

The solution?  Take out a 16' span of the beam, thus creating TWO splices, and install our columns under these new splices.  

Sounds easy, right?  Well, the contractor and architect were both greatly surprised to discover the joists did not rest on top of the beam, but rather the beam extended 16" up and the joists were hung on the beam.  This required some rethinking.  In the end the beam was cut away as shown below.  Temporary support walls running parallel to the beam were framed on either side of the splice.

Today, the splice will be put in place.