On my loft plans i need to put in two 178 x 20 x 19 universal beams

Hi Gaza Best person to talk to would a structural engineer, the details you have supplied are a little vague. But whats usual is to run one steel from front to back of the house on the chimney breast side and then hang the other steel off of that, by means of a bracket and fixed with 4 bolts hope this helps regards les

Hi there, You are not allowed to put a Rsj in the chimney. For the fact that even if your chimney is not in use? Someone down the line may open it up and start to use it,, the heat will rise up and start to bow and twist the steel. Chimneys are not made to take any extra load. A bracket will still be putting load on the chimney, you will need to put a extra steel in the floor joist running alongside the chimney. Then a post (timber/steel) coming off the new floor steel to the underside of the ridge steel. If you have a load bearing wall running the width of your house you may be able to place the post of that Hope this helps?

THE STEEL BRACKETS ARE USUALLY APPROX 400MM WIDE BY 200 DEEP AND HAVE A LIP THAT FITS INTO CHIMNEY MORTAR JOINT BY 50MM THEY ARE THEN HELD IN WITH 6X SLEEVE BOLTS AGAIN NO DEEPER THAN 50MM WITH APOXY RESIN.