Complicated wall removal?

Hi

Before I get in touch with a structural engineer I'm trying to get my head round whether what I have in mind is even achievable at reasonable cost - so really grateful for any quick advice that anyone is able to offer.

I have attached a picture of one of our kitchen walls. On the other side of the wall is a garage. We'd like to knock through into this to extend the kitchen (the garage would probably need to be substantially/completely rebuilt). The kitchen is on the ground floor - there is one floor above it and then the loft.

You can see that there is already a beam spanning the width of the kitchen (290cm) where a load bearing wall was removed at some point to extend the kitchen (the house is around 160 years old and has been significantly extended over the years). We'd like to remove the walls either side of the beam (the ones labelled 270cm and 330cm on the picture).

What is confusing me is whether doing this would require:

(a) the existing beam to be removed and replaced with a kind of 'T' shaped beam (sorry if that's not the correct term), or

(b) whether the existing beam could be retained and supported with a pillar (which could be surrounded by a kitchen island so wouldn't be that obtrusive) that would also support the new beams on either side.

I'm guessing that (b) would be a cheaper option?

Any advice gratefully received!

We had a similar situation and the pillar in the island was cheaper and also we wouldn't have been able to hide 2 of the beams in the ceiling. Also the ends of the 5.6m span in our case wouldn't have been able to rest on the walls, we would have needed new pillars built by the walls.

Thanks very much John D - that's helpful. Sounds like a similar job - our span would be around 6m without a pillar.

So just to be clear, you retained the existing beam and inserted a new (steel?) pillar to support it and the two beams either side?

Actually in our case nothing had been changed from the original corner of the house, we had 2 external walls on a corner. The pillar ended up where the old external corner was, and 3 beams were inserted to form a T shape and square off the rear of the house.
The pillar is engineering brick, apparently to do steel would be more complicated and expensive due to stability issues and not really make a big difference to aesthetics. Would have needed a goal post or something rather than resting on the existing

You're going to need a structural engineer on this, whichever way you go. If the existing steel beam goes far enough in to the wall, then you may be able to weld the existing beam into the new one, but that would then require a larger 6m beam than if you have a pillar.

If at all possible, you should dispense with a column, have a main beam spanning the full width, and support the incoming beam off that.
I appreciate that a beam the full span will be more expensive, but personally I think a column (whether brick or steel) is a botch and
restricts possibilities for planning the space.