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how to tell a load bearing wall?

13 years ago

Some of my house planning could be made easier if I knew how to tell a load-bearing wall from one that could be just ripped out with no bad consequences.

How can I tell?

It will help me understand the effect on the whole house of the plan I am drawing up now for the kitchen remodel. I won't go into this plan, except to say I envision taking out MOST of the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, and want to know if the top portion of that wall will remain, or if it will be replaced by a long and heavy header to hold the house up.

And then the back wall of the house, which WAS the exterior wall between the kitchen and the back porch, will be torn out as well when we rip off the back porch to rebuild that space as part of the kitchen remodel. That porch now has a lower floor, and a very low shed roof, which will be taken out as well. I see an extension of the roof gable to give us a full and high open-to-rafters new portion to the kitchen. But, will the surface which is presently the exterior of the end gable have to be taken out too? All I want to do there is put a 12' beam across the old wall location, keep the gable finished as is, but cover/insulate over the vent which is in that gable. Or else put in an attic access set of pull down steps there and remove the set currently in our hallway between the bedrooms. I think that one reduces the efficiency of our hvac unit.

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Comments (6)

TxMarti
13 years ago
Easiest way is to go up in the attic and see if a truss or rafter end sits on that wall.
User
Original Author
13 years ago
Hmmmmm.
Marti, I will check that out when we go back south.
I'm thinking now that the wall between kitchen/dining is NOT a load bearer. But by definition, the back wall of the kitchen is probably load bearing. After all, that end gable is held up by SOMETHING.

When they removed the exterior wall in our new bathtub bumpout, they installed a doubled up 2-inch thick pair of 10" wide long headers across that 6'6" opening. After discussing the structure of the closet bumpout, we decided to leave the closet doors with a divider between them as the pair of windows that came out already had headers above those holes. It was simple to remove the bottom of the window casing and make those holes two closet doors instead.
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What is the style/age of your house? We bought a house 120 year old house a couple years ago and our contractor explained that old houses are often much easier to 'figure out' in terms of structural makeup (unless there have been half-assed renovations since it was built). What are the exterior walls made of? What is the layout? Have there been alterations to the original floor plan that you know of? Have you removed a part of the drywall or plaster on the ceiling of the rooms you are hoping to join? If you haven't, this would be your step in trying to figure it out. If the joists in the ceiling of the two rooms are running towards each other, chances are the wall is load bearing and you will find the joists are not continuous all the way across the house but actually end slightly past the wall you are looking to remove and the joist that continues across the other room begins a little before the wall and continues across the other room.
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When in doubt,get a consultation from a licensed structural engineer. it sounds like it's non-bearing, but we can only vision what a poster puts out there without knowing all the facts. That's why it's a better bet to get a consult from a pro who can hands on look at your project.
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Be sure to frame out the doorway with a header and jack studs. It distributes the weight. Sawzall the studs. If you need help, hire someone.
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I’m sure if you have the room (at least 5’ for a small slider) you should be able to have one installed, and it sounds like a good solution for you. Since that appears to be an exterior door I would assume that’s a load bearing wall but a good installer should know how to handle that.
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Shades_of_idaho
13 years ago
Remembering your roof pictures on bath remodel that wall would have been load bearing. The gable end usually is not unless you have a hip roof. Then all four outer walls are load bearing. You still need proper brace/supports when tearing out walls. In our house being manufactured I know a couple of walls certainly could come down all the way as they are just partition walls. Still there are headers over the doors.

Just thinking your bath remodel showed the rafter placement. and the outer edges of the rafters sit on load bearing walls as Marti said. You might be able to tell from your old pictures.

Also some center walls can be load bearing because the center of the truss or rafter needs support. Not on a scissor truss the center is a point.Doubt you have those in your house.

On the run last sunny day before big storm hits and I have yard work to do.
lavender_lass
13 years ago
I've always been told that load bearing walls are the ones that run parallel to your roof line. That being said, I'd still talk to a professional, before I removed ANY walls :)
artemis78
13 years ago
I think it's the reverse, actually---parallel to the roof line and floor joists is unlikely to be load-bearing (exterior walls excluded---those are all load-bearing!) When we did a seismic retrofit, the engineer mentioned that for many older homes built in neighborhoods, walls parallel to the street are unlikely to be load-bearing because they usually ran the ceiling joists parallel to the street (because of the roof line, I imagine). Perpendicular interior walls are more likely to be load-bearing. But that's just a rule of thumb---some parallel walls may be load-bearing for other reasons. You can tell by looking at the floor and ceiling joists to see where they're attached.
artemis78
13 years ago
(Oh, unless roof line means the flat part of the roof along the sides, which it probably does. I was thinking of it as the angled lines of a traditional roof. :)

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