Pipe supporting garage roof?

[GeordieAndy14]

Hey,

After some advice. There's a large pipe running across our garage ceiling on which the rafters appear to be sitting (no visible gap). However, the pipe does not appear to be connected to anything. Its coming from a chimney breast on one side and an external wall on the other with no sign of it coming outside. It's preventing me moving the hatch into the loft above the garage and so I'm tempted to remove it, but wondered if there's any chance it could be structural and somehow supporting the ceiling?

I'll obviously be getting a structural engineer to have a look at it before I start cutting it in half but before I go paying hundreds for that i wondered if anyone here had ever seen anything like this before?

Pictures attached

Cheers

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Rather than a 'pipe' it looks like a CHS (circular hollow section) which is a structural column (but can be used as a beam) and appears to be being utilised here as a beam. How long is the span of the joists from wall to beam to wall and what size are they?

 

[GeordieAndy14]

Ah that would make sense...

The joists are 2' x 5's and span just over 2m either side of the "pipe" to the walls, about 4.4m total

Looks like I won't be getting rid of it then sadly!