plumeriavine... I googled and found a bunch of articles. Mostly they tell you to look in the attic or basement/crawl space. We were on a slab and DH has a bum leg so he can't crawl around the attic so we opened the wall. Plus, as I said on the other thread, we knew it use to be an exterior wall. Here's one of the articles.

Here is a link that might be useful: how to tell if a wall is load bearing

for your situation, i would call in another contractor to tell you because your original contractor might not actually know (even though he thinks he does) or he might lie to you. Also, if this were my house, i would be having ANOTHER contractor fix all these problems, because I wouldn't be able to trust the original guy to do it right the second time --he's probably already mad that he's not going to make any money

My sis is one of those people that carry around tons of bits of info. She told me once to look at the roof -line of my house. She said the load bearing walls are usually in the opposite direction of the roof-line. That was the case for my home.
Of course, I am just sharing that because I thought it was interesting and might give you an initial guess. You should surely get a definite answer from someone who investigates by looking at the house more closely.

I don't know if your sister is to be a trusted authority in this discussion.
Bearing walls will often parallel the roof ridge/eaves, for fairly obvious reasons. Gable walls do not usually carry the floor loads, but this cannot be sworn to. Find which way the floor joists run; the walls they cross/intersect are certainly bearing walls. A non-bearing wall may still conceal a post that carries a point load, so "one never knows, do one?"
Casey

With as many other issues as you've had in your remodel, it'd be worth it to consult a structural engineer. Even contractors with experience can make errors in this area, and yours have made countless other extremely simple errors. With some of the newer multi gabled and roofed homes, it really takes an expert to sort it out. It could be the best couple of hundred bucks you spend in your remodel if it gives you peace of mind that your home isn't in danger of collapsing. Or, it could be the best you spend if you find out that the idiots created a immediate action problem. Either way, someone unaffiliated with the bozos should give it a look.

In my house the load bearing wall has a carrying beam below it in the basement with lally columns supporting it. Also, the wall is 6" thick on the first and second floor and the rest of the interior walls in my house are only 4" thick. My house was built in 1939, not sure (i'm not an expert) if that is true of houses of all ages but it's something to check out. Of course you need to get an expert opinion. I learned that because before we gutted to the studs we were trying to determine which way the joists were running in my kitchen to determine how powerful a stove vent to order based on which way the ducting would run and distance of it.

Call an expert!

Be careful --- I know our building dept. micro fishes all plans so you maybe lucky that they have your plans on file. If they do, you can review them with the building inspector.

My lally columns have some specifications stenciled on them, and I try to remember not to paint over them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lally columns

Have it checked to be certain. In older single-story homes it is true that the roof trusses and floor joists generally run in the same direction, and the load-bearing walls are those that run perpendicular. (In our bungalow neighborhood, it was also apparently the practice to run load bearing walls perpendicular to the street, according to the city---no clue why!) BUT if you're supporting a second story or structural changes have been made, it may be another story. Get it confirmed by an architect or structural engineer to be safe.

I discovered that a wall I wanted to take out was bearing--joists were joined over it. So my new tub downstairs will have a header over the alcove! It didn't seem very likely that it'd be a bearing wall--but it was.

Definitely hire a licensed structural engineer to take a look. We are in the design phase of our kitchen remodel and plan to take down a wall to open the kitchen up to the family room. Our design/build kitchen company has scheduled a structural engineer to examine the wall next week. They said the structural engineer may say that either nothing needs to be done or a support column many need to be placed there. If we need a support column we'll have to make it a decorative one and place it on the end of our kitchen peninsula and have it go through the cabinets all the way down into the basement. We are also using the engineer to tell us if we can catherdral our family room ceiling. It is an extra cost of $600 - 800, but I will sleep better at night knowing that the construction work is being done properly. Good luck.

It's very hard to tell sometimes. In my kitchen, I had a walk-in pantry wall that was basically holding up part of the ceiling between my kitchen and dining room. There was a change in ceiling height there from 8' to a vaulted and when the wall was taken down, the ceiling dropped slightly in that spot. The contractor redid all the ceiling joists in the kitchen. The wall between the garage and kitchen was also taken down and bumped out into the garage, but that didn't cause a problem, nor did the wall that was taken down in the laundry room cause any structural problems. The trusses were not affected by any of this fortunately. I would say the more you know ahead of time the better because I know it was a surprise to everyone when that happened in the kitchen.

If it were me I'd hire a structural engineer for a consult. Or call my planning dept and see if they had any recommendations.

I know when we re-did the kitchen at our old house our CONTRACTOR hired a structural engineer because we wanted to eliminate a wall we suspected was load-bearing...and he wanted to be certain we went in with the correct beam to hold up the upper-story. (Back then it had to be steel...nowadays they could do it with a laminated beam.)

Lots of great advice here. The wall in question was "missed" by 6 inches by the Wood-Mode kitchen designer/builder. So, they demoed the 8 foot stretch of mismeasured wall and rebuilt it all in one afternoon, moving it 6 inches. It dawned on me later that this was never inspected. We were billed for the wall.

The wall in question does run perpendicular to the roof line and is an interior wall. There is no second story above it.

I think the advice to have it checked by someone is excellent.