After removing a door and frame, in the basement of our 1976 home, we would like to remove the wall surrounding the door, to create a more inviting opening into the living room. We are wondering if the small amount of wall that we want to remove is structural, or not. The wall in question is running perpendicular to the joists above. There is no wall on the 2nd floor of the house, directly above this wall.

On the right hand side of the door are three 2x4 studs - one to support the door frame and 2 others that must connect to the joists above. For that side we will only be removing the one 2x4 that supported the door frame we removed.

On the left hand side of the door there is a 12" section of wall that we would like to remove. This is the section in question - there is the 2x4 in place that was supporting the door frame we removed, but there appear to be additional 2x4's behind that. How can we tell if this section of wall is okay to remove?

Thanks, in advance, for any help in this matter!

 

The wall probably supports floor joists that would be overspanned if the wall was removed. What size are the floor joists above this wall and how far would they span if this wall was removed?

 

The joists are 2x8's and span 21'-6". We would only be removing one of the 2x4 studs in order to remove the 12" section of wall. Thanks for your help!

 

If I understand you correctly, you are removing the 12" of wall that is to one side of the door, as well as the door and the studs on that side of the door? If that's the case, you would need to remove the HEADER that spans the old door opening and replace it with a longer header that spans the entire opening you are trying to create. The studs on each end of that new longer header would become the "king studs" and you would need to add one or two more new "trimmer studs" underneath the new header on each end, depending on the length of the new header.

Theoretically, they would have positioned the studs directly below the floor joists (usually on 16" centers) so the stud you want to remove might also be below a joist if it falls 16" o.c. from the other studs down the wall that are 16" o.c.

If there is no header there to begin with, then removing any studs is probably a bad idea.

 

Thank you! We did some more exploring (removing sheet rock) and found a very large, clearly very important header. We plan to just leave the opening at its existing width, since we are new home owners and new to the DIY projects! Thanks again for your help!

 

If you wanted to confirm your findings, many people will upload photos to picasa, flickr, or photobucket, and then paste the link to the pics here.