I have spoken with a contractor about removing two load bearing walls (amongst other work). The two load bearing walls are parallel but offset by two feet to provide space for a range/oven in the kitchen. We discussed a somewhat goofy three-beam setup to manage this but it would sure be nice to have a single beam for the full span. This beam would run roughly along the center of the house and there are presently joists running from each exterior wall and overlapping a foot or so over the to-be-removed wall. Along with checking the point loads at the end, the joists above the to-be-removed walls would have to be extended to the new beam location from the existing load bearing wall location. The shift is exactly two feet.
Where should I research code requirements for this? The house is in Pennsylvania. The contractor and their engineer would certainly confirm any final design but I would like to do some initial calculations to check plausibility.
