Attic Bearing Wall

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Attic bearing wall.

Every house uses load bearing walls to stabilize the structure and support the weight of the home above. This is also true when looking in the attic. Find these by measuring or by studying a floor plan of your house. Walls that are stacked may be load bearing.

The floors above roof structure people and furniture are the loads that the wall has to support. Using this technique you ll get a better idea of the location of the load bearing walls in your house. If a wall doesn t have any walls posts or other supports directly above it it s far less likely that it s load bearing. A load bearing wall transfers load all the way down to the building s foundation.

Also notice how the non load bearing walls from the picture above are parallel to the wall framing in the picture below. Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction. For instance hanging or cutting ceiling joists adding stairways and adding attic rooms usually require the changing of non load bearing walls to load bearing walls. Ceiling or floor joists that are spliced over the wall or end at the wall mean the wall is bearing.

By contrast a non load bearing wall sometimes called a partition wall is responsible only for holding up itself. A load bearing wall is any wall that holds up the weight of the structure above and the people furniture supported by that structure. Climb up to the attic. Load bearing walls support the weight of a floor or roof structure above and are so named because they bear a load.

If the wall is located directly under the attic you can go up there to study the positions of the beams and joists. In a multi storey. Even without a second story the roof weighs a lot and. Adding a room in an attic can change the entire load bearing status of the walls below.

Installing the beam is a two person job. Lvl beams are heavier than standard lumber. Look for these from the attic. How to find a load bearing wall.

To confuse matters further some types of construction such as post and beam or steel girder may not have any bearing walls at all except for the outside walls. During home renovations non load bearing walls can be made to bear weight and vice versa. In some cases you may not be able to tell for sure whether a wall is bearing.