Hello, I am looking to open up a doorway between my foyer and living room. I use 'doorway' loosely as there is no door there. It is a rather wide opening as is (close to 5' or so), and just looks to be a transition between the two rooms. The wall is parallel with the floor joists so I am not too concerned about it being load bearing. My question is with regards to the header. I don't see any reason why it cannot be removed, but wanted to check to see what experience is out there regarding a header between 2 rooms...where there is not (or never was) a door. My guess is that it was for appearance purposes to show a separation between rooms. I just want the ceiling running from one room to the next with no interruption.

Thanks for your help

 

What is directly above that wall? If there is no load the header can be removed.

 

A bedroom, but that is it. Nothing crazy like a chimney or elephant or anything.

 

You need to determine if it's a load bearing wall. If it's load bearing the header must stay [maybe replaced with a bigger one depending on how you open it up] Do you know if the floor/ceiling joists run parallel to or across that wall?

 

Joists run parallel with the wall. Leads me to believe it is not load bearing.

 

I would agree .................

 

Sounds good, header will come out. Thanks for the input