Wow, what a great forum! I'm going to be spending quite some time here. We're remodeling and want to take down two walls.

Can anyone tell me if the wall where the heater is attached to is load bearing? Can we just take it down?

Picasa Web Albums - Adrian - remodel

It's a 1 story house built in the 50s, attached pictures show the girder in the crawl space (there are two girders dividing the 26' depth of the house in approx. equal parts). The gas line is running parallel to the girder and goes to the heater, so the wall is on top of the girder, but there's no 2nd floor, and we have a hip roof (I read on this forum that most weight is on the outside walls with hip roofs).

I guess the attic is not truss but hand built? It seems that weight may not be directly onto the girder but a foot off?) Maybe I need to clear the insulation and take a closer look to see if there are joists resting somewhere?

Thanks for your tips!

 

If the wall is on top of the girder, then I would say it's load bearing. The drawing tends to support that opinion, no pun intended.

 

ok thanks! we're gonna leave that wall and demo the one running perpendicular for now. maybe later we'll do an opening in the load bearing one but leave support on each side.