structural engineer recommendations?

hey all, I have a 20-foot wide, 3-story brownstone, and I’m considering removing an eight-foot section of parlor-floor wall, parallel to the party walls, that separates the galley kitchen from the dining room. The wall is about seven feet in from the party wall, and is not above the main beam of the house, so I don’t think that it’s load bearing, but I’d like to hire a structural engineer to take a look. A few questions: can anyone recommend a good structural engineer that would do a job of this size? if a non-bearing wall is removed, is a permit required? anyone with experience doing this that can hazard a guess what it might cost? any advice welcome. thanks!

berniceshola

in Demolition 12 years and 10 months ago

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SimpleTwig | 12 years and 10 months ago

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sometimes in these old townhouses the beams and interior bearing walls don’t line up from floor to floor, and might be off-set by a couple of feet.  This isn’t an issue with 20 foot spans.  If the wall you want to modify is parrallel with the parti wall then it is supporting joists and thus a bearing wall, which if it’s an older townhouse the joists are probably undersized to begin with (i.e. they can’t span the entire width of the house by themselves without deflection).  Therefore it is important to provide proper stiffening members for the joists (running perpendicular to the bearing wall).  An architect could easily size this, but as **brucef** said you would be creating a ‘column’ at the ends of the beam that would carry all the load of the bearing wall that distributes the load, therefore you would need to make sure those 2 loads from the columns reached the ground in the cellar, safely, with transfer beams or new columns. If your house is a single family getting the size of the beam right is as easy as asking the right person (architect, engineer, contractor), but getting the transfer of the weight down to the ground is a bit more tricky.  It’s not that your building will collapse with only an 8 foot length (depending on where the stair opening is located btw) but it could cause floors to sag.   If your work cost more than $10k, or is structural, then you have to file for a permit.

brucef | 12 years and 10 months ago

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This is certainly a Catch-22 situation. In most cases, the wall you are describing is NOT technically a structural member, but is considered a stiffening wall. I can recommend Andrew Goodrich T (347) 787-3338, but asking a structural engineer means he will recommend the proper support, which cannot come from an existing wood floor or beam, but must come up from cellar from a footing with a steel column. The conflict comes between the legality of an existing condition, and the requirement of a new condition to meet code. Best would be an architect who grasps the subtleties and is OK with removing non-structural wall. Then include a substantial header into your design supported by cripples. Actually, I personally would do it under the radar but engineered to be overbuilt.