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Load Bearing Wall Identification

By Tim Carter
©1993-2008 Tim Carter
Summary: A load bearing wall can be tough to identify. Determining load bearing walls and how best to go about removing a load bearing wall are among the most frequent questions I receive. Mechanical and electrical structures may be hiding behind those interior walls as well. How to determine if a wall is load bearing? The safest way to sleep at night is to hire a professional structural engineer.

DEAR TIM: How can you identify a load bearing wall? I would like to knock down a wall between my kitchen and dining room that is just four feet long. To the best of my knowledge there are no electrical or plumbing lines in the wall. There is a phone line in this short wall. The wall does run perpendicular to the floor joists above and below the wall. What are my options? Tim G., Rochester, NY

DEAR TIM: Bearing walls have a mystic aura all their own. Plaster, drywall and wood paneling finishes that are applied to all interior and exterior walls act as a very effective camouflage in the average residential home. All walls tend to look the same. A cleverly placed bearing wall can be as dangerous as a stealth bomber. Remove one without adequate re-support and all sorts of things may drop down on you.

This wall separates my family room from my breakfast room. You would be shocked to discover the enormous loads concentrated in this wall, even with the doorway and large opening.
Keep in mind that bearing walls are ones that act as a structural element within a house or home. They typically are carrying and transferring a load from one point to another. In a properly designed home, the loads eventually get transmitted to a foundation, a thickened part of a slab and/or a concrete footer that supports a column or post. Knowing this, you can work up from these elements in the average home and locate many structural elements and bearing walls. But beware, some loads are very well hidden and not all bearing walls are found in the middle of a structure.

The exterior walls on houses that support the roof are primary bearing walls. Not all exterior walls are bearing walls though. There are many houses where just the front and back walls are bearing walls. My home is different. Because I have a hip roof that slopes towards each exterior wall, each of those walls is carrying some roof weight. To make it even more complicated, the second floor of my home has a smaller footprint than the first floor. Some first floor interior walls are actually supporting the main roof of my home. This innocent looking wall with two openings in it is a bearing wall that supports 20 percent of the roof and 33 percent of the second and third floor loads!

Frequently interior walls that run perpendicular to the run of the floor joists above and below are candidates for bearing walls. But there are many a wall such as this in a home that are not bearing any weight whatsoever. If you discover a wall or a beam directly below this wall or parallel with the wall within a short distance, then the suspect wall may be a bearing wall. Bearing walls are not always stacked one on top of another. This is why detection and identification is an exact science.

Don't assume for a moment that your short wall is free of electrical or plumbing lines. It is not uncommon for cables, wires and pipes to run horizontally from an adjacent wall to another wall as they run from one location to another. Trust me, as you begin to strip the drywall or plaster from this wall you could quickly run into a plumbing vent pipe or an electrical wire. I have on occasion discovered abandoned gas lines, heating ducts, return air ducts and even clothes chute pipes in very innocent looking walls. The absence of utility lines and pipes below a wall does not mean they are not present above.

Another surprise one can find in a wall is a column or post. The wall itself may not be a bearing wall but it is hiding a crucial support member. Several years ago I built a light commercial building that has a four inch steel column buried in an unsuspecting interior wall. From all outward appearances each and every interior wall in this building appears to be non-load bearing because the roof structure is all modern trusses. But this particular truss roof was different. It had a giant girder truss that was accepting loads from other trusses. This special truss needed extra support mid-span!

If you desire complete peace of mind, you should hire a professional to make the determination for you. Structural engineers are trained to do this. They are often listed in the Yellow Pages. Often you can get the advice you need for several hundred dollars. To keep the fee to the absolute minimum, remove the drywall or plaster from the wall before the engineer arrives. The fee you will pay will be very small compared to cost to repair structural damage that may result from a hasty demolition party.

 






Comments

jamie
29 Dec 2007, 02:29
looking to knock our bathroom through to the toilet ,there is a 6ft block wall that we want to take out,how do we check to see if it is load bearing??
AsktheBuilder
29 Dec 2007, 07:13
Jamie,
Follow the advice in the last paragraph in the column above. It is the best money you will spend on this project.
Nick
30 Dec 2007, 19:13
I have a wall 10 foot wall in my basement that is directly under a beam which initially made me think it was load bearing. This wall is there to create a home office space that was there when I bought the house. The home office, as well as the room above it are not an addition per say, as the concrete foundation was originally poured including the room. The rooms however do jut out from the core of the house on thier own.

However, after further investigation there is a lally column buried in the wall.

With the precense of the lally column supporting the beam, I would imagine that the wall is not necessary correct?
AsktheBuilder
31 Dec 2007, 07:58
Nick,
That is a good assumption. Be sure the beam is supported at the ends and middle before removing the wall.
Amanda
14 Jan 2008, 15:09
I have a wall between my living room and office. It runs parallel with the floor joists below, AND above it. But that is the only wall below that section of the second floor. Do you think that is a load bearing wall or do you think it is just a wall. I've had 4 different professionals look at it, and it came back 50/50. 2 said it was. the other 2 said it wasn't. I'm going to assume that it IS a load bearing wall, since there is nothing else underneath the second floor. Am I correct to assume that? Thanks
AsktheBuilder
14 Jan 2008, 15:43
Amanda,
If what you are telling me is accurate, I say it is NOT a bearing wall.
Charles Kearns
15 Jan 2008, 09:34
Can you please tell me the per square load weight on my roof. It has 2x6 conventional trusses with a 2x4 running the width of the roof with a 2x6 diagonal brace. There is a 2x6 under the 2x4 that adds support to the braced truss. they are 16 feet long. 5/12 pitch.
1x6 tongue and grove decking.
thank you
Charles
AsktheBuilder
15 Jan 2008, 10:01
Charles,
Nope, but a structural engineer can.
steve
27 Jan 2008, 12:44
Hello, I have a wall that is created at my front entrance to create a division between my living room and stairs to the second floor giving a hallway effect. The wall runs parallel with the floor joists above and below. I was wondering if it was structural or not because when I removed the drywall I found some clues. First there was a double 2+4 supporting the top of the wall and the 2+4's appeared to be southern yellow pine. There was also a floor truss added directly below the wall but that truss did not have additional support like you might expect if it were structural. I am guessing that the additional truss (a 2+10) was just added for a nailer. I have a typical (A) roof which to the best of my knowledge is supported by the exterior walls so to make this wall structural does not seem necessary. Please let me know what you think. I plan on hiring a structural engineer to verify my assumption but I would like to know what you think first.

Thank you,
Steve
AsktheBuilder
27 Jan 2008, 15:22
Steve,
It doesn't matter what I think. I would need to be there to see many other things to make a call I feel comfortable with.

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