Since I bought this place 3 years ago, I've had many major plumbing problems. The previous owners had only 1 completly up-to-date nicely furnished room that I could use (I'm not counting the very nice little girl's room my son didn't care for or the nursery my other teenage son didn't care for). It was the laundry room. They had poured alot of time and money into it. First I made holes in the roof and walls so that the house could be plumbed for natural gas. Then the pipes started leaking. I've had numerous plumbing problems both in the laundry room itself and the kitchen sink directly upstairs. Now sections of the roof have come down, 2 walls have wicked up the water to the point that they need to be replaced, the carpet in my son's room next door rotted and with this last problem I have just moved my son into another room and have decided that his old room will remain a concrete floor and that I will use the room as a storage room. My oldest having joined the army I now have an extra room. My question is, since I may have to replace that wall anyway, I would kind of like to just completly take it out and have one large room with the laundry, water heater, furnace and storage. It would be very large and since it doesn't really get hot, it would work for storage. How do I know it this is a load bearing wall? If it is, would it be possible for some kind of compromise?

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 13, 2000

Answers

Cheryl, you need a professional for this one! My 2c? Friends just removed a load bearing wall in their cottage, but they had to replace it with a header, to distribute the weight. In my own house, the landlord chose to use 'jacks' instead of a header. Jacks are ajustable loli columns, so we have 'poles' every 6 ft or so in the downstairs(cheaper than a header, but unsightly). Don't tear down a wall without some 'solid' advice!

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 13, 2000.

Cheryl,

My understanding via my husband is that a load bearing wall runs the same way as the roofline of your house. You could call your county building people and ask. They ought to know.

We removed what my husband said was a non-load bearing wall in our kitchen 3 years ago. When the inspector came out to do his thing, he said "Yep. That was a non-load bearing wall." It ran perpendicular to the roofline of the house.

Corinne

-- Corinne Hayes (hayesm@fcc.net), September 13, 2000.

Hey Cheryl, Just read Corinne's reply-makes sense, unless you live in a place like mine! No reason, no 'on center' studs. Hard to figure whats holding this place up, at all! Good Luck!

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 13, 2000.

A load bearing wall means that the cieling joist ends rest on that wall, or the roof bracing is supported by that wall. If there is attic space over that area, you can climb up and check to see for yourself. rjones

-- bobbie jones (bjones @tnns.net), September 13, 2000.

What about a mobile home? We have a wall I would really like to knock out, but don't know how to tell if it's safe. Any suggestions?

-- Mona (jascamp@ipa.net), September 13, 2000.

First I agree with whoever said to get professional advise. Hints like running parallel with the roof line are usually correct, but if it's an older house especially, it can be hard to tell sometimes. Having said that, here are a few other clues: If it's a load bearing wall it will run the length of the house or the load will be placed on a beam where the load stops. If there aren't any openings larger than a door be suspicious. If the line of the wall runs into a room, you will either see a beam across the room or not.

If you are taking down the ceiling, look at the joists/rafters. A load bearing wall always runs across the load it supports, never parallel to it.

Mona, Single wides never have load bearing walls, as far as I know. Double wides can have a load beading wall or supported beam down the center.

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), September 13, 2000.

Paul's advise on the mobile home sounds solid to me. AS far as a compromise on a load bearing wall. I never install headers inside the living space when I remove a load bearing wall, as it is unsightly in my opinion. I never excede 24' , and that must be in a room with attic space overhead. On this type of construction ,I use beam & truss method.

-- bobbie jones (bjones @tnns.net), September 14, 2000.

This room is in the basement and this particular wall does not have any openings. My house has gables so I really do not have a roof line. I'm not removing the ceiling because it hides the underside of the dining room floor above it. My understanding is that the entire basement was a large open space before the previous owners enclosed rooms. I do not know how accurate the info is. The original owner passed away, her son is my neighbor but is elderly and begining to suffer from Alzheimers, and the the only other owners were not real bright on certain things and have not always given me good information. Thanks for the advice.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 14, 2000.

Get a professional evaluatin. My crazy brother wanted cathedral ceilings in his top floor Chicago flat. He did it himself, the neighbor across the street got to see the roof cave in after the first snowfall.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 14, 2000.

One more vote here for getting a professional opinion. I'm a retired professional, and can tell you that, while there are certainly lots of "rules of thumb", as stated by some of you, there are exceptions to most all of them. If you have to ask, Cheryl, please ask someone who can come have a look for you.

Jay Blair's story is not as rare as one would hope.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoffjoe@yahoo.com), September 14, 2000.

Cheryl, Basements normaly have a supporting girter through the center of the house. This supports the cieling joist, if you are in the basement, or floor joist if you are talking about the first level. If it was originaly open space in the basement, the girter should have been supported by posts at no less than 8' . This is according to building code in my area, I do not know what area live in . If you are removing a wall in this type of an area, you should find these supports in place. Floor joist resting on this wall will be at a 90 degree angle to this wall . If a floor joist ends on this wall , then it is a load bearig wall. Walls that run paralle to joist, with no other joist resting on them, are non load bearing. walls.

-- bobbie jones (bjones @ tnns.net), September 14, 2000.

this is kinda along the same lines.....by the way if my husband finds out i wrote this i am dead!....1 bedroom had a realy low ceiling so he and his buddy decieded to raise it,well along the way the math got messed up and no one double checked.the joists of the attic floor wher removed 1 by 1 cut and replaced well they were put 8 in. to high which left the whole back of my housenot being pulled together enough. no one noticed until the wind blew and the walls started to move!! never saw two guys get braceing up so fast. get help when needed and always check your math !!

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), September 14, 2000.

I printed this thread to share with the guy I work with. He very solemly stated that the previous owner of his house had removed 2 ijnterior walls that while not being "weight bearing" did provide some assistance to the w. b. walls to control expansion. He said his roof actually lifted about 1 1/2 inches with the change of the seasons. He said he he used to just worry about making a mortgage to keep a roof over his families head, but now he figures living in Huntsville Al he'll be lucky if he doesn't go with the roof, so the walls are going back up.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), September 16, 2000.