TLDR: Handyman unexpectedly cut out a section of a basement beam that holds my floor joists with no architect/engineer approval. What should I do? I'm finishing off half of an unfinished basement. I hired a handyman to install some windows and do some minor framing changes. To my surprise he cut a section out of one of two beams that hold up the floor joists above my basement. I asked the handyman to header off some floor joists that sit atop a beam to gain some additional headroom in the stairway from an upper level. The beam spans about 16' from one of the gable sides of my house to the interior corner of a concrete block wall that's part of my garage. Floor joists sit atop the beam. I was expecting the handyman to cut the joists shorter and add a header on top of the beam. He did that, but he also cut out the section of the beam below the header, so that the header spans across the cut section of the beam. As part of the basement framing, I built a 2x6 stud wall under the beam, with 3 openings for the stairway and two doors. That's probably what's holding up the two sides of the cut beam now. Needless to say, I'm freaking out. No architect or engineer signed off on this change and I'd be surprised if I could find one that would. I was planning to call for the framing inspection, but I don't think the building inspector will sign off with a big section of beam missing. That change is not shown on the drawings I submitted. Anyone have any advice? Should I put a claim in on the handyman's insurance? I was thinking of telling him he has to make this right by finding an architect/engineer to sign off on the change.

I’m looking for a solution to a framing conundrum I am facing. The house that I am renovating had severe damage to the kitchen (See 1st picture). The footprint of the kitchen extends out past the rest of the house as seen in the attached picture. I believe it was originally a sunroom that was later converted into a kitchen. A tree fell on it years ago and it was left to sit there and just rot. I have to tear it down to the foundation walls and rebuild it right back up. The house sits on ~4’ tall foundation walls & piers. I also need to extend the square footage of the kitchen since it’s too small as currently laid out. But per the city’s arcane rules, moving the foundation walls is out of the question because it’s a historic structure. I have been granted approval; however, to cantilever the framing and extend the footprint of the floor out to the extent permitted by engineering & framing codes. The current layout is 18’ L x 10’ W. I’ve been told that you can extend 25% of the length of the span past the foundation walls, so I would like to go out to 22’L x 12’ W. I would then use either brick curtain walls or landscaping to hide the overhang and call it a day. It’s important to note that the areas that would be essentially “floating” would be where a strip of cabinets would sit on and maybe 1 appliance. People wouldn’t really be walking over the area much. I’ll include a picture of the layout in a computer program I’m using to design everything so that you can see where everything will go. So what I’m looking for is some specific instructions on how to frame this- particularly the corner. I saw a photo of a cantilevered roof that I have attached, but I’m hesitant to copy that design because I’m not sure of the load-bearing capabilities. Really just looking for a simple diagram showing how to frame this out. I’m planning on using 2 x 8s for the joists.