Load-Bearing Walls
Hello, It seems like DIY demo-ing is not too hard, according to the many posts on this site. I am considering having a go at it during an upcoming renovation of our kitchen & bath. We want to close up a wall and create a new doorway someplace else and possibly knock down the wall…
Hello,
It seems like DIY demo-ing is not too hard, according to the many posts on this site. I am considering having a go at it during an upcoming renovation of our kitchen & bath. We want to close up a wall and create a new doorway someplace else and possibly knock down the wall (or part of it) between the kitchen and the living room. I am wondering if there is a way to know which walls are indeed load-bearing if you do not 1) have the original plans for your building, and 2) do not have the money to hire an architect.
im an architect and have worked on several townhouses. typically on wider townhouses you will find the wall parallel to the party walls at the inside of the stairwell is a “relieving” wall – it is not a true bearing wall but instead helps support the span of the joists. in narrower townhouses the joists may span from party wall to party wall. in any instance, when you begin demolishing ANY walls, there is the very real potential for the whole house to move. old buildings are held in a state of equilibrium – when you muck around with this balance, they shift and move as loads are redistributed. you’d want to check the structure in the cellar to see how it bears before doing any of this work. your floor will end up out of level, tile cracks, stairs shift, cabinets dont touch the floor – dont forget, demolition also includes anything that’s inside of the wall – electric, plumbing – when you cut through it.
My engineer charged about 1500 to look at and draw up plans for the removal of a load bearing wall. I also got the acceptable materials for columns and beams to replace the area I took out. Withh the engineer we found that at some point someone took out a portion of the load bearing wall on the first floor and realized all that needed new support. I could see on my parlor floor a slant that had occured over time. And when I took out the load bearing wall I saw it was no longer bearing the load because of what had been taken out underneath. This is serious stuff and MUST be done properly. I feel good having all the proper supports in now!
I have consulted my crystal ball, and tarot cards and they both say go ahead and knock down the walls they are not load bearing. 😉
Seriously, even if you had the original plans, there could have been alterations. Do not mess with them w/o consulting a professional.
You shouldn’t do anything without consulting a licensed Professional Engineer. Try Heimer Engineering at Heimer.com.
12:15 Anon here – yep, my gut instincts were right. Don’t mess with stuff like that. Shop around for an architect – it may be cheaper than you think to get an opinion. It’s one thing to rip out cabinets, and install yourself, or sanding floors, or tiling but if you are wondering if a wall is load-bearing, DON’T. If you can afford a brownstone, you can afford to save up for an architect.
I agree with the last post. I had some work done and the architect noted that in old houses sometime walls that started out as non-load bearing end up as load bearing as the house settles in over time. This is not someting to be triffled with. As an aside, by having my basement ceiling checked we found that a supprot under the bathroom had been compromised and it needed to be fixed, so you neve know what you’ll find.
This is NOT something for amateurs. Even I know about this stuff. At best you will end up with plaster damage on upper floors. At worst you will compromise the structural integrity of your entire house, and possibly your neighbors’.
Go to your basement and see how the joists are configured. Do you have some sort of perpendicular-running beam with columns? Check at the point where the joists intersect or cross this beam…Do the joists run from masonry wall to masonry wall with out interruption? Do they have breaks and the joists overlap? Almost without exception the center hallway wall in most brownstones is a load bearing wall. Sometimes the joists are long enough to run continuously sometimes the building is too wide and they sister up at the load bearing point. Anyway, you will need someone with engineering skills who will know how to transfer the load from the weight above the removed wall down through the basement to the foundation. Also certain points are more tricky as near stairways as the headers are distributing this weight to points not as obvious. To be %100 sure you will need to expose the area above the place you want to cut the passage.
Wow, you frighten me – I sincerely hope I am not your neighbor. That was my gut reaction on reading your post.
If you have a narrow brownstone, then none of the interior walls should be loadbearing. Also, if you have strip flooring, you should be able to tell if the wall is loadbearing based on how the strips run – parallel (I believe non-loadbearing), perpendicular (load bearing).