Cast Iron Pipe Columns 1

There is a lot of info - mostly summaries of historic allowable stresses/designs. You will find that allowable stresses got lower and lower with cast iron eventually being eliminated as a building material. Try Friedman's book historic building construction, a summary in the back covers the progression. Google will also give you lots of good info.

Don't try to weld or modify them. Also keep in mind that all connections are basically pinned at each floor level as each column stacks. If you are removing floors the bracing is tricky - usually collars being careful to not clamp down too much.

Very brittle - I have seen very thick base plates snapped in half.

One thing that gets overlooked often - even if you don't increase loading you can still cause problems if you change loading path such that it creates an unbalanced condition, i.e. moment which causes tension on one face.

See attached for one paper.

Thanks for the information.
I am trying to do an evaluation of the capacity of the columns first.

I have several scenarios to look at for the renovation of the building.
At least one of them involves adding load to the columns by adding a column above.
There are no plans to remove any floors/roof.

A little more info:

See attached pic - this was not being demo'd, scary stuff. I'm generally a wimp with cast iron, adding a column on top is tricky/risky.

bookowski - thanks for the photo
Conditions at the building I am looking at look like new construction compared to your situation.
The added column will actually go on a timber beam, so there are other issues.

mbullism - thanks for the link