Was wondering if any of you have had experience with flitch plates added to an existing 3-ply, 2x8 beam to change span from 7 feet to 14 feet (remove column at 7' position) ? Size of hardware, spacing of same, staggered or double row, thickness and lengths of flitch plate(s) and material (angle, channel or flatbar), etc. ?

Please don't just tell me to see an engineer. I've inquired of a couple and they wanted $350-$500 just to come look, with no guarantees a design could be done which wasn't to combersome to install without a 12 man rigging crew. If you know of design can be used (ie personnal experience), then I'll draw it up and bring in the engineer to stamp his/her approval on it.

Thanks,