[mschild]

The total cost of replacement as quoted to me by contractors is 5x. I've reached out to several and none of the quotes go below it.

I'm doing a lot of things myself, but anything that can get dangerous or wildly expensive when I fuck it up I let skilled contractors handle.

[kragen]

That's even less clear. The total cost of replacing what with what is 5× what? I think what you want to remove is steel beams, but I'm not even sure of that.

[mschild]

I have to replace a steel beam inside my house. It's old and when it was installed (1936), the building and load requirements were quite a bit different. With the modifications I'm making to the house, a new one is needed.

The beam runs across the ceiling in my living and dining room. Previous owners installed a lowered drywall ceiling to hide it but that took 20cm of height from the rooms. I'd like wood beams because I could leave this exposed in the room as a design element and have 20cm more ceiling height. I would not want to see the steel beam (even the new one).

For the entire replacement, including labour, materials, and anything else to have a finished ceiling, the quotes I received from multiple contractors are all at least 5x more expensive for the wooden beams.

This may ultimately not be down to the cost of the beam itself but rather that partial wooden construction is newer trend in Germany and they can simply ask for more but I don't have confirmation for that.

[kragen]

So the total building project becomes 5× more expensive if you use wood beams than if you get a new, thicker steel beam with a new lowered drywall ceiling over it? Where does the glu-lam alternative come in?