loud bearing wall removal
The most likely time that a load bearing wall gets removed is when a home has remodeling work done. Owners of older homes often want to have a more open floor plan, so they remove walls to get a more open look. In the process, they remove a load bearing wall and don’t realize that it is a load bearing wall. Professional contractors will normally check first to see if a wall is load bearing before they remove it. If it is, they will usually put a header (wood or steel) in the opening to carry the weight. At times an engineer may have to do calculations on the design and header size.
What is a load bearing wall?
A home has two basic types of walls, load bearing and non-load bearing. Just as the name implies, one carries weight above it and the other does not. A load bearing wall is a structural wall that may carry the weight of the roof, the weight of upper floors, and even the weight of a room’s ceiling. The weight is often referred to as the “load”.
The load, starting with the roof and everything under the roof gets transferred down to the footings. Engineers will often refer to the “load path”, which is basically the way or route that the weight gets transferred down to the home’s foundation and/or piers.
Generally, the outside walls are load bearing. The interior walls of a home may or may not be load bearing, depending on how the house was engineered. In older homes with a hallway down the center, one or both of the hallway walls may be load bearing. In many newer one-story homes that are built with trusses, there may not be any interior load bearing walls because all of the loads get transferred to the exterior walls by the trusses.
Load Bearing Walls: Removal Issues & Warning Signs
Removing a load bearing wall may create structural problems in a home, including sagging ceilings, unleveled floors, drywall cracks, and sticking doors. Recognizing the warning signs of this is important. Even removing just a portion of a load bearing wall to create a wider door or window opening can be a problem if not done correctly.
Removal of load bearing walls without properly supporting the load they’re carrying may occasionally result in a structural collapse and even injury.
When a load bearing wall is removed, or even a portion of it, there should be a plan on how the weight that it is carrying will be supported. The removal of a load bearing wall should be done by a professional who understands how the weight that it is carrying will be temporarily supported while the permanent support modifications are being installed. If the area being removed is small and the load is not excessive there may not need to be support or just minimal support may be needed.