Wall Removal

Are your living spaces divided by walls cutting the flow off between rooms? If the kitchen, dining room, and living room are unified, the areas with the greatest social activity in the house, the change is surprising. By removing one or two walls it can open the flow and unify these areas.

Are your living spaces divided by walls cutting the flow off between rooms? If the kitchen, dining room, and living room are unified, the areas with the greatest social activity in the house, the change is surprising. By removing one or two walls it can open the flow and unify these areas.

You may be concerned about removing a wall especially if it is a load bearing wall. But do not worry, with the use of a little engineering and the right size beams we can safely remove load-bearing walls.

• If there another story above it, is there another wall that runs in the same direction directly above the wall?

  o Yes, then the wall is load bearing.
  o No, then you need to check the floor joists.

• If there an attice above the wall, do the ceiling joists stop on top of the wall?

  o Yes, then the wall is load bearing.
  o No, then the wall is most likely not load bearing.

• All exterior walls are considered load bearing.

Click Here for a video by Ask This Old House with Tom Silva with an easy way to identify load bearing and a basic idea of what is involved in removing a load bearing wall.

If the wall is load bearing then the load or weight that the wall is holding up needs to be supported by something. Typically the load is replaced with either an LVL or metal beam with colums of studs on each end that transfers the weight of the structure to the foundation. The building code gives specifications for beam or header sizes upto a certain size anything above that will require an engineer to determine what kind and size of beam that will be needed.