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Question on possible load bearing wall Removal

Jeremy Chappell

6 years ago

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I purchased a home that was originally built in 1940. There have been two updates since that time. The first was done and a porch area was closed in and turned into a separate dining room. The second was a full extension of 3 levels off the back done in 1990.

I'm not sure when the porch conversion to dining room was done. Currently we are thinking about converting the original formal living room into a sitting area and dining room at the front of the house.

The goal is to be able to make a large kitchen. The issue is that I will need to remove or open a wall between the original porch area and the kitchen. Meaning this was was originally an exterior wall. Does this fact complicate the wall removal efforts to the point that it may not be possible, but should it be feasible with a bit more complexity for an engineer?

Comments (4)

lazy_gardens
6 years ago
It's always possible. But might not be affordable.

You need an engineer to tell you what's being carried by that wall and how much can be removed before you get into $$$$.
J G
6 years ago
What is the span that you need to open? You may be more limited in the span you can open or the remaining header. With an all brick construction house, with two floors above our kitchen. We have had a structural engineer draw up how to open the kitchen into the current refrigerator room (which is built like an enclosed porch). It will be a lot of steel for a relatively short span with at least a foot remaining in the ceiling for a header. Part of it has to do with keeping the house from falling down while the put it in, but i have not seen it done yet (or received the updated quote for the steel after the structural engineer made the drawings).

We got a quote that had an allowance for the beam construction, then paid a structural engineer to evaluate and make the drawings and we are waiting to figure out how close the allowance was to the estimate.
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User
6 years ago
Old houses get grumpy when you start messing around with them to do wall removals. They tend to bite back.
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6 years ago
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