Splicing 5" pipe support column?
Going back-and-forth with a structural engineer on what to do about load-bearing column replacement. His recommendation, to "replace" two 35' small-diameter support columns, running from the basement of a 1925 commercial building to support the flat roof.
The bottom of the columns are compromised with corrosion. There is no practical way to simply replace the whole length.
For those engineers here who have a more practical bent, can I "replace" only the section that is damaged through cutting and welding, or will this compromise the original design load capacity to the extent it shouldn't be done? The columns are not large and assuming we transfer the load prior to the repair it makes sense this should work, but I hesitate to present this to the engineer without knowing if my solution is cray-cray crazy.
The other solution is an Ezy-tube wrap, which is fine, but costs me a foot of column diameter. Has anyone ever worked with these old-school columns?