how would I do this? opening up a wall(pic)

dwcopple

we want to do this to our kitchen are for an open floor plan feel. The "doorway" is not really a door just a finished opening in drywall. The span from the left side of the door to the outside of the wall we are looking to turn into a half wall is around 9-10 feet. Across from that opening is the living room so there is no further wall support to the far side of the house. We would like to go as high up as possible with the opening but I do understand we may need to add a header of some sort. How would I go about doing this, and how would I keep support of the ceiling/roof while I demo the old wall? Thanks and sorry for the cheesy drawing in MS paint.

joecaption

Going to have to figure out of it's a supporting wall first.

ddawg16

As Joe said, you need to find out if that is a load bearing (supporting) wall. If so, then your going to need a header....in which case, after properly sizing the header, I would run it all the way over to the post on the other side of the opening.

Get up in your attic and look at your ceiling joists.....if they run the same direction as that wall....it's less likely that it's load bearing...but if perpendicular....then most likely load bearing.

If you don't want a beam to show....depending on your ceiling joist layout (I'm assuming this is one story), then you might be able to put the load beam in the attic....but that is a lot more work....but it looks good. Our neighbor did that.....or rather the contractor did....they took out two walls....the contractor sized a beam (5x12 and about 10' long I believe). Set it on posts in the existing walls and ran the ceiling joists to it using Simpson joist hangers. When it was all done, you couldn't tell that the walls had ever been there.

So...if your wanting to open it up...Open it up as much as you can....the additional work is not that much more....hence, I would take out the wall to the other side of the opening.....But that is just an opinion.....

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dwcopple

the ceiling joists are perpendicular to this wall. How do I determine beam size and span? What is sufficient to support the beam on either end? I would be okay with some beam showing as long as I can box it with drywall, then I could add some lighting up there too.

747

Structural engineer. He will tell you exactly what you need, You might be able to then slap a lvl up there.

joecaption

Only way your going to get lighting in there is if you added some boxing that would sit lower then the beam which would bring it down even more.