Additionally most home s exterior walls are load bearing.
Attic bearing wall.
Ceiling or floor joists that are spliced over the wall or end at the wall mean the wall is bearing.
So how do you know whether a wall is load bearing.
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 important thing to remember is that if a wall is load bearing it is transferring that load to something underneath it.
A load bearing wall transfers load all the way down to the building s foundation.
Load bearing walls typically run in.
Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction.
Once you ve reached your house s lowest point look for walls whose beams go directly into the concrete foundation.
Where there are windows and doors the walls include beams or headers spanning across the tops of the openings.
If a wall doesn t have any walls posts or other supports directly above it it s far less likely that it s load bearing.
Some bearing walls are easy to spot see the central wall in figure b.
Using this technique you ll get a better idea of the location of the load bearing walls in your house.
Enter the basement and inspect the.
Note the direction the roof ridge runs.
Walls that are stacked may be load bearing.
Look inside the attic if possible to identify the direction in which the rafters or joists travel.
The floors above roof structure people and furniture are the loads that the wall has to support.
This is also true when looking in the attic.
How to find a load bearing wall 1.
Climb up to the attic.
In a multi storey building load bearing walls usually line up with each other from floor to floor but this is not always the case.
Examine the roof structure from outside.
You should see this at the foundation level whether wood.
If your wall conforms to the situation shown you can be sure it s load bearing.
Look for these from the attic.
If the wall is located directly under the attic you can go up there to study the positions of the beams and joists.
Exterior walls are almost always load bearing.
Look at the structure of the house and ask the following questions.
Adding a room in an attic can change the entire load bearing status of the walls below.
Posts on either side of the openings support the beams.
If you have an unfinished.
If the wall in question is on the second floor look to see if there is a.
