We had the same issue with a load bearing wall between kitchen and dining room when we remodeled our kitchen. We have a late 1930s Craftsman type cottage with a lot of (too) small rooms. We wanted to take down the wall between kitchen and dining and make one larger space. We had 5 different contractors come in to give us an estimate for the remodel. Four of them never even called back. One man, an older gentleman with years of experience took on the job. They took down the wall and put in a load bearing beam. Made lovely cabinetry near the beam so it looks lovely. That was 7 years ago. No problems whatsoever with the job or the kitchen . Cheap? no. But absolutely gorgeous job.

BTW, the same contractor is now building our new home. The moral is that the right guy can do the job.

How wide is the span you are moving? One story or two?

Moving a 10ft wall a couple of feet doesn't have to be a major issue. Maybe you can just put up a header where the wall is and build a new non load bearing wall. Perhaps you can hide the beam with cabinets or a soffit. You may just be able to build a new load bearing wall the couple of feet away without further changes. There are many solutions to your problem. Its done everyday. A decent contractor should be able to handle the job without a major expense. Get a couple of contractors in to give you an estimate and suggest ideas.

You could also start by posting your question with diagrams to the remodeling forum here, that's what I did.

We did exactly what you are contemplating... removed three walls between the kitchen and dining room/hallway. There is an upstairs bedroom above. We didn't want a beam and post in place of the main load bearing wall, so the structural engineer recommended we reinforce ("sister") the upstairs floor joists with LVL joists (2x10s ripped to the exact height of the existing joists). Each sistered joist is attached via 40 Simpson Strong Tie screws.

We had to reinforce a total of 14 joists and each joist is just over 19 feet in length. We were able to cut and fit them so about 1-1/2" of each joist rests on the top plate of the opposing walls. The upstairs floor isn't at all bouncy, but I doubt it's quite as secure as when the old walls were in place.

This worked really well and totally opened up the kitchen/dining/family room. Materials were about $3,000 and it took two days to do the work, not including ripping out the old ceilings!

I'll post a picture later from home.

1nhardin, could you possibly post pictures? Our load-bearing wall will be replaced with a steel beam and posts recessed in the walls so they will barely show, if at all. We are putting one support post and one decorative post at the end of the island between the kitchen and DR.

Here are our reinforced floor joists spanning the dining room area as seen from the kitchen:

I'm going to get on my soapbox overlooking the Pacific Ocean here and tell everyone to make sure a structural engineer approves any moving of load-bearing walls and that the ultimate product is in compliance with your local building code. Those building codes are the difference between our earthquakes and earthquakes in other countries. Even if you're not in EQ country, if a building is overstressed you'll at least end up with a maintenance nightmare with cracking drywall & such. Spending the $500 is worth the peace of mind.

Glory, I don't have an opinion on the specifics of your question and am not trying to imply that the work you're proposing is a bad idea or unsafe. Very generally rough carpentry is much less expensive than finish carpentry, but it appears more expensive to the average homeowner because you have to remove drywall & such to get to the framing. If you've ever gotten a $2000 bill for a $2 head gasket on a car, you can understand. So doing all framing work when the kitchen is completely gutted anyway is the logical time.

Good luck!

Ditto to bluekit:
Don't know how old your house is, but that also may complicate things. Based on our experience of the last week, we'd definitely pay the modest amount needed to get an engineer in. Don't trust a high school educated contractor to be able to calcuate the solution.

Obviously very old houses are a real challenge. Ironically, I think that relatively new houses can also be a problem, as they are built in an era of "slap them up fast and cheap." You can't count on things being as they should be.

That was the case with our 13 year old house. We are trying to move a short section of exterior wall out about four feet. Only after demo began did problems start to become obvious. First, the existing beam, built from three LVL's, is actually inadeqate. Second, the %^&*(% builder's electrician hogged out multiple 1-2'' holes at the end of the beam to run his wiring. This means that we can't just move the supporting column out to the end of the existing beam as we had hoped. So now we have not one but two engineers working on solutions. Currently it looks like we will need a roughly 24' steel beam running perpendicular to the existing beam. This in turn is too large to get into the house. Architect suggested having it welded on site. Contractor refuses saying fire hazard is way too high to allow this. He is hoping to be able to bolt two 12' beams together using gusset plates. Waiting for engineers to confirm bolting OK and (gulp) to estimate price.

So...our advice. It may seem simple but you won't be sure til you open it up. I'd definitely have an engineer located and ready to take a look and confirm that your plans won't lead to all of the walls on the second floor cracking due to inadequte support. That may be the best $500 you'll spend on the renovation.