Header for load bearing wall?

​I am in the process of renovating my master bathroom when my GC discovered a load bearing wall. The load bearing wall was previously the left-side of the shower enclosure that contained the water lines. We are expanding the shower but removing this wall and moving the water lines to the opposite wall. I have attached photos for reference but the GC (license/insured in NJ) didn't seem to be concerned. He recommended, I believe, a header (4X6"?) to replace the 2 2X4" that only span 1/2 the room to extend all the way to the other side of the room. A few questions:


1) Should I get a structure engineer to look at this?
2) Can I rely on the town inspector to confirm if the work was done properly?
3) Any idea why 2 - 2X4" used only 1/2 way? I guess it wasn't necessary due to the verticle stud in the middle.
4) Any reason why the different length on the 2 - 2X4"? On the left side, it is odd to me that only the bottom 2X4" lays atop the pair of studs. I can understand why they don't lay atop the verticle stud (that I am removing) as the top part of the frame for the wall was needed
5) If a 4X6 is adequate, why not a big bigger for the hell of it?
6) Bonus Question: There's a lot of insulation already but I see some holes and some rips, should I just replace those given the low cost point?


Thank you.


-Shawn

 

Why does he say it is load bearing? Doesn't look that way to me. Looks like roof trusses above. They shouldn't need any walls below for support. The only thing I see is that it appears to support that soffit on one corner. Shouldn't be much of an issue to get the supported some other way. You also wouldn't use two flat 2x4's as a header for load bearing walls.

 

My wife spoke with him but I will speak to him tomorrow. I assume no one can be for sure without pictures of the weight on top of those beams. Correct?

 

Looks like trusses above where those walls were, right?

 

No walls have been removed yet. The vertical beam in the first picture will need to be removed.

 

This doesn't need engineered.
On interior non load bearing walls it is commonplace to place a double 2x4 header at the top of an opening. It's considered non-structural.
As far as the 2x4 at left being cut shorter, there may have been an obstruction and the carpenter got lazy. The bottom 2x4 rests on the vertical stud and was more than sufficient.
The post in the middle, double 2x4. That is what the contractor says is load bearing. It's only supporting the corner of the soffit and that's why the little concern.
A 4x6 is more than sufficient to span the shower and support the soffit. What you would like is as much headroom as possible entering shower. 80" is standard. You will have enough headroom considering the shower dam, 4x6 header, plus tile.