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What are load bearing structural elements?
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Sep 21, 2022 · If a wall does turn out to be load bearing, you'll need a structural engineer to undertake calculations for an alternative support as well as building control sign-off. Here's our expert guide on the key signs on how to tell if a wall is load bearing.
Generally, if a wall is load bearing, these joists will be perpendicular to the wall. Go upstairs and see if the wall continues from below. Load bearing walls often have walls above them. Check if the wall is an external or internal wall.
1. Load Bearing Walls. A load bearing wall transfers the loads form slabs above it to the foundation. These walls can be made of concrete, masonry or block materials. Most of the exterior walls of a building structure are considered as load bearing.
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When a house is built, load bearing and non-load bearing walls are created. The difference between these walls is what you'd probably imagine - some are responsible for shouldering the structural weight of the building, while others (often called "curtain walls") are purely for dividing rooms and don't hold anything up. Before modifying any walls in your home, it's important to be
sure which walls are and aren't load bearing, as removing or modifying a load bearing wall can compromise your homes' structural stability with potentially disastrous consequences. This article provides information on how to find the load bearing walls in your home.
Start at the lowest point in your house.
To begin determining which walls in your house are load-bearing ones, it's best to start at the most basic load-bearing feature of any home - the foundation. If your house has a basement, start here. If not, try to start wherever on the first floor you can locate your house's lower concrete "slab."
Once you've reached your house's lowest point, look for walls whose beams go directly into the concrete foundation. Your house's load bearing walls transfer their structural strain into a sturdy concrete foundation, so any walls that interface directly with the foundation should be assumed to be load bearing walls and should not be removed.
Additionally, most home's exterior walls are load bearing. You should see this at the foundation level - whether wood, stone, or brick, nearly all exterior walls will extend right into the concrete.
Begin to look for thick, sturdy pieces of wood or metal called
These account for the majority of your house's load, which they transfer into the foundation. Beams often stretch through multiple floors and thus can be parts of multiple walls. If your beam spans from the foundation through any wall above it, the wall is load bearing and should not be removed.
Find the original building plans, if they are available to you.
Depending on the construction of your house, it may be impossible to accurately guess which walls are load bearing and which are not. In this case, your house's original blueprints or building plans can be a valuable resource. A house's blueprints can give you an idea of where support beams lie, which walls were the original exterior walls, and more. You can use this information to inform your decisions when it comes to designating certain walls as load bearing.
It's not at all uncommon for homeowners not to possess a copy of their home's original blueprints. Luckily, blueprints for your home may be found:
At the county clerk's office
In the possession of the original owners
In the possession of the original builder and/or contracting company
Call the original builder, if you can.
The person (or company) that built your house can clue you in on the exact structure of the house. If construction was recent, they may not even charge you for a quick call or consultation. Even if they do, keep in mind that a relatively small fee is nothing compared to the disastrous structural damage that can result from tearing down a load bearing wall.
Call a building inspector if you have any doubts.
If you can't figure out which walls are load bearing and no one you call seems to know, you may want to hire a professional building inspector. Paying for an hour of a building inspector's time is definitely worth it if you want to remodel safely.
Home inspections typically cost several hundred dollars.
This rate can vary depending on the market and the size of the house - some high-end estimates can be as high as $1,000.
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If there are any attic supports, like beams or columns, then look for any walls that are directly beneath these beams and columns on the floor below. More than likely, those are load-bearing walls. For example, if there are any walls below the vertical beams in figures 3 and 4, those walls are almost surely load-bearing.
Dec 28, 2019 · A load-bearing wall is any wall that holds up the weight of the structure above and the people/furniture supported by that structure. The floors above, roof structure, people and furniture are the “ loads ” that the wall has to support.
May 22, 2024 · Load-bearing walls support the weight of the structure above them, while non-load-bearing walls are primarily used for partitioning spaces and can be removed without compromising the integrity of the building.
