I am hoping I have put this in the correct category. This is a detailed question, so please hang with me here.

We need more laundry room space. When you come in our side exterior door, the washer and dryer are straight ahead, and there is a door going into our kitchen on the left.

On the other side of the right wall in the laundry room is a storage room that was built when our house was. It is attached to the house - it's not freestanding. The room has painted sheetrock and a stamped ceiling with overhead light fixture and electrical outlets in place. Our water heater is currently in this room.

This storage room has a door that can be accessed from the exterior, but not from the interior. We would like to "cut a hole" to access this room from the interior. We don't even need it to have a door, but just to be a doorway.
We know we will need to purchase a new suitable exterior door for the storage room if we do this.

How do we go about making a doorway? Is this a job that do it yourselfers can even do?

Thanks in advance!

 

Quite often closet doorways are not situated under load bearing walls, but you will have to determine this first before you go tearing into this. If it is not load bearing, the job will be fairly simply, especially if you don't need a door. You can just make an adequately sized cased opening and leave it at that.
First you will need to do exploratory surgery in the walls by cutting small holes and seeing what is within the walls, such as electrical, water, drain/vent pipes, etc. Of course wiring can be moved, but plumbing may get into more than you bargained for.
Just so we can see what you are seeing, would it be possible for you to post a few pictures on a site such as photobucket.com?

 

I am not sure I understand why you are talking about closet doorways? Could you please give a further explanation?

Thank you.

 

I forgot to ask Chandler.........how do we tell if the wall is load bearing? Thanks.

 

Chandler may have thought there was already a door there. I am not a carpenter but most load bearing walls can be detected by looking above the ceiling at the ceiling joists. If the wall you will be cutting runs the same direction as the joists, it is not load bearing. If it goes across the joists it could be load bearing (wall is "bearing load" of the joists i.e. supporting the joists). In this case, a header would need to be installed above the door.

 

Mr. Dragon,

We are sooooo do it yourself ignorant!

you said:

most load bearing walls can be detected by looking above the ceiling at the ceiling joists. If the wall you will be cutting runs the same direction as the joists, it is not load bearing. If it goes across the joists it could be load bearing (wall is "bearing load" of the joists i.e. supporting the joists). In this case, a header would need to be installed above the door.


How do we look above the ceiling? Do you mean go up into the attic and look? Sorry for the ignorance, we just don't have a clue. This will be our first major do it yourself project. Thanks so much for your patient answers.

 

That is correct. I used to trust going by some nail dimples in the drywall on the ceiling but that can sometimes fool you. Look above the wall up in the attic.

 

Thanks Mr. Dragon. Our attic is not floored very much, and it isn't floored in that section of the house. How can we safely get over there to look? We had a friend who was working in his attic and fell through. A couple of surgeries and recovery with a walker later we are a little squimish about attics.

Thanks so much.

 

You don't have to go all the way over there. The direction of ceiling joisting will probably remain the same throughout the house, unless it is an addition. Just stick your head in the scuttle hole or climb the stairs and see which way the joists (or nails if floored) are running.
Maybe I did miss that there was no door there originally, but still, do the exploratory just to make sure you have a clear path to go cutting.
If you can, post some pix so we can see and can give you a better advice base.
I would build a header regardless if there is a load bearing wall or not, I just don't want the ceiling to start sagging during your remodel. A header can be made of two 2x10's with a sandwich of 1/2 OSB between the two, giving you a full 3 1/2" depth. This header will span across your proposed opening plus at least 3" on either side. I prefer more, but 3 is OK.
Post back, as we have a bunch of pros on the forum that will pitch in and help out.

 

DonnaJ - Can I make a suggestion. Stop by your local library and pick up a book on carpentry. At the least it will explain all the strange terms related to your project. If you are new to DIY carpentry and home renovations, words like joists and headers, casings, load bearing etc. can all get confusing.

The job you want to do sounds pretty simple and I'm sure that it is well within your abilities. You just need to get some info on the basics.

Get a book, take some photos and a half dozen guys here will answer any of your questions.

 

Or...you can google the words and find photos on them.