Remodeling our laundry room and the plan was to put in a pocket door but that was before I opened up the wall last night. The laundry room leads into another room (steps down) which is a converted garage with bonus room up top. The rooms are at a T to each other so the load bearing walls aren't the same. The 'header' consists of a single 2x10 nailed to the ends of 3 of the old garage's ceiling joists. There is some slight cracking and bowing of the board. Although surprisingly not as much as I would have thought. The door is right up against the ceiling of the garage so a normal/easy header is out. I think the pocket door is out unless I create a fake wall to house the door. Open to ideas though. While I've got the framing exposed is there something better (and feasible) that I should do here? At the minimum I was planning on supporting the garage ceiling and replacing the existing 2x10 with a 2x12 but wanted to see if there was a standard when it came to something like this. Photos: The trashbags are filled with old insulation and shoved in the gaps after cold air poured in. This gap is what would allow me to fit a 2x12 in there. The 2x10 spans a 32" door and is nailed into 3 suspended joists. [ATTACH]75353[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]75354[/ATTACH]

I want to remove a wall between two rooms and the ultimate question is whether it is a supporting wall. I think it's not, but does anyone have a reason to suspect it is with the following facts: * The wall runs parallel with the joists above it; * The wall desired to be removed does not go beyond the joist span above (in other words, both rooms are on one side of the building's center beam); * The wall separates two rooms that are 16" offset (2 steps down/up); * Since the rooms are offset, it maybe can be thought of as two end walls of two buildings joined together - the wall is even 8" thick, not 4"; * There is a block wall in the basement which usually means supporting, but it looks like it's there to support floor joists (not ceiling) which are running perpendicular to the ceiling joists; I'm under the impression that an outside wall parallel to the joists above AND under a single joist span, doesn't support anything ...is that true even when seemingly two separate buildings touch each other? [ATTACH]75963[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]75956[/ATTACH] Above is a drawing of the direction of the joists. The garage is to the right. [ATTACH]75957[/ATTACH] Above is the lower right room. I was extremely surprised to discover 3 courses of 4" thick block ABOVE the floor! This is the only thing that makes me think I may be missing something, but I can't seem to establish why the builders would go through the hassle of laying block instead of starting the wood framing on the floor/deck. Also note that the block just stops 2/3rds of the way to the right which also makes no sense! They had to chisel out areas for the electric, for the HVAC return, etc. - all to use block instead of framing. I'm baffled. [ATTACH]75958[/ATTACH] Above is my drawing of the basement block and what's above the floor. The wall to be removed has 2x4 studs for each half of the 8" wall, but the 2x4's do not line up - they are staggered. I will be monitoring this closely and will answer within a few minutes of any posts asking more questions. Thanks a million!