Even without a second story the roof weighs a lot and load bearing walls bear most of the.
How to tell load bearing wall from attic.
If you have remodeling plans that include removing or altering a wall you must determine whether the wall is load bearing or non load bearing.
In the attic look down at the ceiling joists and ask yourself these.
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.
For instance hanging or cutting ceiling joists adding stairways and adding attic rooms usually require the changing of non load bearing walls to load bearing walls.
How to recognize a load bearing wall from the attic.
Grab your blueprints a great place to start is by digging out the original blueprints if they re available.
Also notice how the non load bearing walls from the picture above are parallel to the wall framing in the picture below.
The original blueprints for the home will tell you which walls are load bearing and which ones are not.
Any part of a load bearing wall that is removed must be replaced with a suitable structural support such as a beam and or columns to bear the same load that was supported by the wall.
An example of a non load bearing partition wall can be seen on the left.
Use the following steps to identify a load bearing wall.
When joists trusses are perpendicular to the wall and bear o n the top of the wall that wall is bearing wall.
Every house uses load bearing walls to stabilize the structure and support the weight of the home above.
It all depends on the shape of the house its size and the number of floors it has.
This is also true when looking in the attic.
During home renovations non load bearing walls can be made to bear weight and vice versa.
Finding load bearing walls is not always an easy task.
An example of a load bearing wall call be seen on the right.
Here is a checklist to tell if the wall you want to take down is load bearing.
If you don t have access to your attic you can always look at your.
If you don t have a basement or have a finished ceiling take a look at your home s structure from the attic.
