Be careful using steel in a residential building.
In a fire the steel will heat up and lose its strength. It was this loss of strength in a fire that caused the collapse of the World Trade Centre. The facility survived the aircraft impact and only when the steel lost strength enough to buckle did the collapse occur.
Steel in a residential fire may not lose enough strength to collapse but when the fire fighters get there they will spray water on everything. This will cause a sudden contraction of the beam and it may warp and buckle. I have seen residential steel beams twisted like a pretzel after a fire. The twisting of the beam can cause as much damage as the fire.
Fire protection is essential and I would suggest that you check with your insurance company to see what effect this has on coverage and rates.
At almost ¾ of a ton this is not a do it your self project. The 58 in the W8x58 are the pounds per foot. I would suggest that you price this out first, including delivery.
How are you going to support the house when the existing beam is being removed before the steel one is in place?
You could also look into adding additional wooden beams, parallel to the existing one and perpendicular to the joists, thus breaking the joist span into four spans. You should be able to design a built up beam that will span the 24’ if the joist load is short enough.
Under the Canadian Building Code, Table A-8 forming part of clause 9.23.4.32(3) a 5 ply 38x286 (2x12) will span 7.03 m or (23 ‘) with a 2.4m (8’) supported joist length if you use Douglas Fir select structural grade. To go outside this range you would need an engineers design but I would think that a 6-ply beam would work.
You could also use an engineered wood product or wood truss. This could be a do it yourself project and not weigh as much. The existing beam could stay in place until the new supports are in place.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion