Most of the older houses won’t have open kitchen concept. Thus , many house-owners remodel their live area and kitchen for open kitchen concept. For that purpose , house owners need to know some ideas about the load bearing internal wall. Cost for removing the interior wall depends on the remodel work.There are several questions in client’s or house owners mind before take down a wall.

What is a load bearing wall ?

The wall which carries the roof weight and weights on the above floor – “load bearing wall”.Mostly of the load bearing walls are perpendicular to the floor joists.In some cases it may placed at a offset distance too. In general load path starts from ceiling- beam- column- foundation . Moreover, structural engineers or civil engineers design the specific “load path “ to achieve a structural integrity for the house structure. In Some newly constructed houses, instead of internal load carrying walls they transferred all the loads to the exterior walls. While removing the interior load bearing walls problem may occur like, ceiling sagging cracks in the drywalls, un leveled floors ,etc.

How do you identify the load bearing wall ?

Here some of the ways to find out the load bearing walls in your house .

Check your basement level

Check your basement Level or the lower level of a building to identify interior load-bearing walls .And also, determine the plumbing ,structural conditions of the wall exactly.In many newer one story homes , houses are built with trusses, there may not be any interior load bearing walls .

Check your floor joists

Walls that run parallel to floor joists are not typically load bearing walls , whereas load bearing walls are perpendicular to the joists. However , in some cases they might parallel to the floor joists .

Check your Roof ridge

Load-bearing walls inside the building typically run parallel to the ridge. Hence , check your building exterior and roof . If you have attic , there also you can check the structural elements.

Identify your Walls at center

Identify the loads in the center place of the house. Because , the roof ridge at the center of your house .Most likely, it’s a load bearing wall.Some walls location be same in every floor level which transfers the loads. Mostly of the houses with roof trusses don’t have interior bearing walls. Stick framed houses have a center bearing wall.

clear it up with blueprint

Finally , check your blueprint of the home before starting your remodeling work . It gives you a clear idea about your entire house structure and it’s elements.

Removal of load bearing walls

In order to change the older homes closed internal walls design , house owners want to have a more open space like in open living and kitchen area. In those remodeling process , need to get more ideas about their internal walls structural system.

Before removing the wall , contractors will normally check first to see if a wall is load bearing or not ? If the wall is load bearing, they will usually put wooden header or steel in the opening to carry the weight. And at the same time, the structural engineer may do some calculations for the load path for exact remodel design .