building off of what renovator said, if you have load bearing walls on the first floor, you need to align structure below them in the basement. This can be beams or walls. Frame walls will be your cheapest option in most cases. However if you do not want a wall there, then price is not always the driving factor. However if you are a single story plus a basement, you shouldn't have too many first floor interior bearing walls. If you use steel or LVL beams, they must be sized to carry the first floor load as well as the loads placed on the first floor (2nd floor and possibly roof loads). As you can guess, this can make wood beams, even built up, quite deep. Steel might be your best bet here if you have longer spans between columns in your basement to keep head room heights at ideal levels. I tend to disagree with the claim in wood costing more then steel. Steel will cost more then wood in most cases. The post can be hidden inside walls (why would you do this? save the money and make the wall bearing! unless of course you have a very high point load) or they can be boxed out and made decorative. I joists should actually be cheaper then a floor truss, but typically cost a little more then solid 2x8-12 framing. However IMO, I joists are far superior. They can be had in very long spans so they can lay a continuous 30'+ joist across your load bearing beams/walls and allow for straighter and faster construction. Also, depending on the depth of them and the spacing, they can easily clear span 20'+. Plus they are a "greener" product. Trusses will cost more, but the benefit you have there is the web openings to allow easy smaller duct runs and electrical access.

Okay Amy, from a woman's standpoint who doesn't understand the intricacies of this important task, I hired experts as it seems you will too. So, if you are trying to get a general idea of how it happens, I can tell you. We just had something similar done 3 weeks ago. But on a MUCH smaller scale, I might add. I had a load bearing wall between the kitchen and DR that we wanted to make more open. It supports at least half of our house. We went from a 36" open doorway to approx 80" open. The GC took measurements and found out the size of the header beam that the load required, structurally. When the time came, the carpenters opened up the walls and ceiling, moved the electrical out of the way and installed two temporary walls on each side of the existing ceiling/walls against the attic joists (we have a single story ranch so this might be different for you)Once everything was in place and the load could be essentially transferred to the temp suppports, they sawed thru the existing beams and installed the new longer heavier beam. I ended up with a new 12" deep header where I used to have two walls and an open doorway. It was either that or go into the attic and cut the joists to install a steel beam to carry the load if I wanted a flat ceiling. I opted for the less scary (to me) and more cost effective header :) Also, I googled 'removing a load bearing wall' and watched a few YouTube videos ahead of time so I could kind of understand the process. HTH!

We are remodeling our house and building an addition. We are wanting to expand and redo our master bathroom and bedroom in addition to a few other things. Right now I have a load bearing wall going through the area we have to work with, an I do not want to completely move it. They're are 8 ft ceilings in this area. The entrance to the bedroom area is on the load bearing wall and we could do one more door way either leading to the bathroom or closet area etc. I am attaching a pic. The two large rectangles are the spaces we can use for the master areas. Anyone have any ideas for how we could make this a master bedroom and bath without crossing that middle wall (labeled 17ft) too many times? You see the bedroom entrance to the left of the pantry. We COULD enter this area from the right of the pantry (making a short little hallway where it jogs back. The large opening below the pantry opens to the kitchen dining and great room. To the right even further we have a mudroom/powder room. Let me know if this doesn't make sense! It's quite a big area!

With no living space above the only thing the wall can be "bearing" is the weight of the ceiling. Surely you've determined that the ceiling joists run perpendicular to the wall, right? If they run parallel it is not bearing in any way and can be completely removed if you like. If the ceiling joists run perpendicular then it's best if you get into the attic but there are some clues as to whether or not it holds up the ceiling. If the ceiling joists lap over the wall (they meet in pairs) it is certainly bearing. If not it all depends on the span and the size of joists. In general though nearly every such wall without joists lapping over it can be considered a partition wall. If it is a bearing wall one of the best ways to deal with it when only attic space and you're only bearing ceiling weight is by using an "overhead" header (it sits on top of the ceiling joists) to which you attach the ceiling joists with joist hangers. This allows you to completely remove the wall below. Of course you must have proper support at both ends of the "overhead" header.