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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.
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.
- Overview
- Structural Clues
- Building Research
- Outside Help
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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Removing drywall to tell if a particular wall is load-bearing is a common myth. While it is possible to use this method to see whether a wall is structural or not, the difference between structural and non-structural walls isn’t in the framing but in the support they provide.
- Check the structure’s blueprints. One of the best ways to determine whether a wall is load-bearing is to check your home’s blueprints. These are drawings supplied by the architect or designer, and they show where every item in the house should be located, including the location of load-bearing walls.
- Identify whether the wall is perpendicular to the joists. Unless they were added after construction, most walls that run perpendicular to the joists above and below them are structural.
- Determine if the wall is aligned with support beams. Remember that load-bearing walls work in systems. They’re often stacked on top of one another from floor to floor, or at least designed to distribute the weight in a relatively vertical path.
- Check the thickness of the walls. Another method for how to know if a wall is load-bearing is to compare its thickness to the other interior walls. Generally speaking, partition walls (a term that describes non-load-bearing walls) are built using 2×4 studs, which are cheaper but sturdy enough for non-load-bearing walls.
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.
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Oct 3, 2024 · 14 Ways To Tell That A Wall Is Load Bearing Way #1: Look At The Floor Joists. Load bearing walls typically run perpendicular (or at a right angle) to the floor joists. In fact, this is the most common way to quickly tell if a wall is load bearing.
