Moving a wall....is it load bearing?

Howdy folks, first time here, so take it easy on me

I am going to attempt, I repeat, ATTEMPT to extend my laundry room. There are a few challenges with this project, others I'll post in their respective forums.

Basically, I'm simply moving the laundry room wall with the door on it out in to the garage about 7 feet. This will give me room to put in a refrigerator (beer, obviously) and a coat/book bag/shoe organizer.

The question is, how do I know if the wall that has the door, the same wall between the existing laundry room and garage, is load bearing? I'm trying to figure out if I need to re-support the ceiling where this wall exists after it's moved.

Thanks in advance....

 

Welcome to the forums!

What is directly above the wall? Can you get in the attic to look?

 

Thanks Mark!

I can get in the attic (tomorrow when I'm back from travels), but I believe it's a bedroom and/or hallway on the 2nd floor.

 

If there is another floor above the wall, it increases the chances that it might be load bearing. If you can't evaluate the framing from the attic you might have to remove the drywall in the laundry rm to know for sure.

 

Typically walls that are perpendicular to the floor/ceiling joists are load bearing. Walls that are parallel to the ceiling/floor joists are not.

If you are bumping out into the garage you need to research code requirements for the wall. You'll need to use fire rated products for the door (reuse?) and the sheetrock.

 

If the wall you want to remove is perpendicular to the exterior wall of the garage/house, chances are good that it is not load-bearing. And you don't need to chop holes in the ceiling to find out (unless you need practice repairing holes in drywall). Simply either use a magnetic stud-finder in the ceiling (the indicator will "blip" when it encounters a nail head) to determine the orientation of the nails, or even just very careful, light tapping with a hammer will tell you the direction the ceiling joists run--a louder, hollow dull sound indicates no joists, while a slightly higher-pitched, denser thud indicates a joist. Check the garage ceiling, too, as I've seen garage ceiling joists occasionally oriented at right angles to those in the adjacent house. And regardless of which way the joists run, if there's an upstairs bearing wall resting on the wall you want to remove, it's load-bearing, and will require taking a few precautions (aka ceiling header or dropped beam) when relocating it.

 

I can't access the area above this in the attic...so I took a few pictures, hopefully you can see them here:

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...40980325435041

I've tried to put some detailed captions under the pictures. Let me know if this sheds any light on the situation....

Thanks!

 

From the photos it looks like you have upper joists running or at least resting on top of the current laundry wall that you are talking about taking out based on at least the drywall mud lines that likely follow the joists. If so then this wall is load bearing and you will need to install an adequate header beam over the area that you will remove wall studs from.

 

Since the wall does appear to be load-bearing, the next question is--do you plan to hide the header in the ceiling, or go the ugly route and let it hang down into the room?

 

Ok, that's what I was afraid of. I have no problem going the "ugly" route and just have a drywall/textured drop down....it is just the laundry room.

Dumb question, but is there a suggestion/some guidance on how to put these header(s) in? In other words, do I need to put a 2 x 12 up, then take down the existing wall and put the other up, or is there some other method? I have zero experience with that part

Thanks for the help guys...

 

Are you sure you need 2 x 12s for the headers? Something that deep and stiff is normally used for longer spans, somewhere in the order of at least 10' or so (size is normally determined by a combination of span and loading). Are you spanning that far?

And for what it's worth, every time I've removed and relocated a load-bearing wall, I simply installed temporary supports under all joists framing into that wall (from all directions), and then removed and replaced the wall with a properly-supported header. I also make a practice of my header supports (4 x 4s, or steel columns) being hidden in the adjacent walls, to not intrude into the room space.

 

I think you need to be real careful with this one. If it is a load bearing wall, it extends down below grade onto properly engineered footings. It isn't clear about how much wall is going to be removed but it may be enough that the new point loads exceed the capacity of the existing footings. If the new wall in the garage turns out to be load bearing, it probably can't just sit on the garage floor slab. You may be able to tackle the build yourself but you may want to consider an engineer so you are getting the best possible solution(s) to your situation.
Good Luck!
Jim

 

Well folks, finished product! Ended up using a 2x12 header to replace the old wall....worked well!

Thanks for the feedback & help....

Pics here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1...40980325435041