Hi there, I am not in NJ but am a licensed civil engineer in CA. Do you mean you want to knock out the wall to the left of the door on the right? What I'm getting at is, what is the final "clear span" you are trying to achieve? If it is the wall I am thinking of, your clear span is going to be that wall plus the width of the door. The building code your state adopted includes span tables which basically allows anyone to lookup what type of lumber they need to support a span of up to about 6 feet without having to perform a structural analysis. They include a great deal of assumptions, and are generally conservative enough for typical applications. That's why GC's can frame doorways and such without needing a civil engineer's stamp. Once you start going beyond "typical" spans, the amount of assumptions you have to include to provide a safe "estimate" would generally be too cost prohibitive and inaccurate. Having said that, the width of the wall plus the door should most certainly put you over 6 feet and you would need an engineer to spend a small amount of time looking at the wall to confirm a few things, and some quick calcs to give you the building requirements you need. In the case of any kind of remodeling project, personally I would always recommend an engineer come out anyway to confirm assumptions and make sure the GC follows not just span requirements, but proper connection details of the wood members.

If you are looking at LVL beams, you should have a table similar to this one, which gives you the guidelines for height and width of beam required. https://www.weyerhaeuser.com/application/files/8514/9517/9127/1484260463_TB-551.pdf  Based on my reading of this table (maybe I'm not correct) you may need quite a bit taller or thicker beam for the span. You also need to determine how the load transfers to the floor underneath, and verify that it has sufficient strength. The original wall had multiple points in the floor evenly supporting this area, and now you will have a post that puts a much heavier direct load on a small area. You may need a basement support below, or thicker concrete under that post. Do your calculations and plan, and then hire a structural engineer to verify the calculations and sign off on the plan. This will reassure you, and keep the AJH happy. The reason I suggest getting the data together yourself first is that engineers don't all work on this type of homeowner construction job, and its better to simplify the question for them. If the engineer has to find the load tables for your specific brand of LVL beam, and do all the other data gathering himself/herself (find data on supports under the post, etc.), it will take that much longer. Bruce

She said there is a second story. I am assuming the second story is above this, since this looks like the main living area, kitchen, living etc. I would assume, second story is the bedrooms and this wall was the support for the upper floor. In any case, neither floor needs to collapse down on a lower one. Since she has had an engineer and the beam is not sufficient, hopefully, now it will be repaired, whether it is the first floor or the second floor. The sad part is that everyone now thinks they need this open floor plan, and a lot of load bearing walls have been removed and not supported properly. Some will not even realise it until the ceiling starts sagging, or collapsing. Sabrina is lucky, she spotted the sag in that beam right away, and she did get an engineer in to check it out, before things got worse. Its unfortunate that there are so many contractors out there that do this type of work, that really, just dont care about the safety of those that live in the house.

Is this problem still relevant to you? It's hard to answer, but I'm in a similar position. I can't find any specialist who would take up work in my house. I don't understand what this is connected with, because I offer quite good money for the work. Perhaps the fact is that, in my case, you will need special equipment that could hold heavy weights to the roof. But I've already found the guys from the service https://teamliftingsolutions.co.uk/beam-load-testing-kent-essex-london/ for them to be engaged in lifting mechanisms. Now I am looking for an engineer who would help me organize and calculate all this work