Hello all - Thank you in advance for taking the time to listen and reply! I've taken the first step to inspect a first floor common wall between a living rm and family by removing the drywall (photos attached). The house is a an engineered truss 19" high and 24" on center spanning 26' (roof is truss too). Underneath the wall, inside the basement truss has two 2x6's nailed inside of it (~12' apart), along the length of the house. These 2x6's run about 58" parallel on each side with the wall to be removed (photo attached but not referenced in the drawing). The wall in question is 17' long and we'll (hopefully) be removing an 8" section to put doors on. Upon pulling the drywall I noticed the top plate is doubled up 2x4 which I wasn't expecting. Underneath the wall is a basement with no wall underneath - the full 26' span is unsupported for 15' from the outside wall to where the previous owners framed out an office in the basement. (See not to scale MS Paint drawing). Above the wall is a common wall between two bedrooms. My original thought, pre-cutting was that this was non-bearing because of the truss construction. I'd make the opening, shore up some king and jack studs with sandwiched 2x8 (or 2x10) LVL and patch it back up. The double top plate has thrown me though and brought me here. I love this forum. Please let me know if you need any other photos or descriptions. Thank you again and have a blessed Labor Day! [ATTACH]37358[/ATTACH][ATTACH]37359[/ATTACH][ATTACH]37360[/ATTACH]

Hello Everyone, Anyone have some feedback on how to or if I should finish the walls that lead to my basement? Basically, I have an enclosed staircase down into my basement...there is a door at the top and a door to the bottom. There is greenboard installed on the walls that lie below ground level in this area... Can I finish this as I would normall finish drywall or would that ruin it's water repellent capabilities? I'd like to finish the stairs and walls but don't want to cause any issues. Thank you!