Beam too low in bedroom?

[Leland S.]

Hi I'm doing a rehab and pulled out walls of a load bearing hallway to combine two bedrooms to a master suite. Problem is a few things, the floor upstairs feels like a trampoline because the old owner who had built the upstairs addition used 4" floor joists instead of 6". My contractor says he can double them up to make them more stable which I hope is correct. 

The other issue is I almost hit my head on this new support beam they put in the ceiling where the hallway walls used to be, but they added it to two 2x4 header beams rather than removing all of those 2x4's and replacing with the beam for some reason. So now the beam is about 2" below the doorway entrance making an odd entry beam lower than the entry door. I think this is unacceptable. My GC says he can cut away half of the beam if we add a closet to the corner of the room which we planned to do up to the beam. 

Any second opinions would be helpful.

[Jared W Smith]

Wow.. @Leland S.. @Alan Pederson is right. Firstly let me put my disclaimer out: 

Disclaimer: I am an architect, but I am not YOUR architect. I am not giving professional advice only general information. Contact a local architect/engineer for a detailed consultation specific to your project/locale.

..having said that- Your Contractor is cutting corners and it makes me question if he knows what he's doing. No way 2x4 should be holding any floor. That's against most if not all building codes. The fact that your Contractor is trying to band-aid fix it by adding more 2x4 is a big red flag. Then there's the head height issue. Building codes (here in NY State) say the lowest clear head height is 6'8", but for most spaces it has to be a min. of 7'. So if you are hitting your head than unless you are NBA tall, this shouldn't be happening. 

Who is your architect and/or engineer!? Who designed the headers that way, especially with the top plates remaining in place above support beam? What do the plans say? 

Based on the height of that open door, if this is the low head height area then likely due to the beam installation. The top plates are superficial and unnecessary. Joist should sit on new support. Another option if head height is an issue to complete a flush installation by joist hanging above framing to new beam allowing to eliminate the visible beam altogether. Who's inspecting these? They have a single 2x as shoring/support for the framing above? So so many questions..