I Want to Remove an Assisting Wall
i want to remove a wall between the kitchen and dining room to open up the space. i have been told that this is an assisting wall and not a structural wall. can anyone recommend a contractor to do this?
i want to remove a wall between the kitchen and dining room to open up the space. i have been told that this is an assisting wall and not a structural wall. can anyone recommend a contractor to do this?
“Assisting wall”? You may not want to remove it.
Who told you it’s not structural?
Typically, these walls actually do some bearing work. Depending upon the width of the house, if this is the only wall diving the sides, the joists may run continually from one party wall to the other, but they are “assisted” by that wall. Technically they can carry the load, but they would deflect a lot without the wall. Remove that wall and you may see some real movement in the floor above, leading to all sorts of cracks in your finishes.
I would be very wary of removing this wall, and would probably consult an architect or engineer before removing it. Either way, you should do some exploratory holes at the ceiling at the top of this wall to see if the joists are continuous over the wall or if they actually bear on it. No way to know for sure without doing that. Even if they are continuous, I’d still get a licensed professional involved to measure the size, span and spacing of the joists and calculate the deflection under typical loads.
Jim Hill, RA, LEED AP
Urban Pioneering Architecture
I just used a good contractor for a similar job. Check out Yaz at brooklynartisans@gmail.com. Reliable and well priced.