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Is this a load bearing wall?

10K views 27 replies 9 participants last post by  JoJo-Arch 
#1 ·
I am curious if anyone can tell me if the 2 walls in these photos are load bearing. yes i realize it may be hard to tell, pls do your best.

We would like to remove the 2 walls between the living room and kitchen.

#1 – the wall in front of the sink [far wall] and to the left of it [where fridge is]

#2 – the right wall, behind the cabinet. [between the kitchen and living room], adn to the right of it
 
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#27 ·
Assuming the plan above is the correct one and to the correct scale, I suggest you show this to your structural engineer. It also assumes you still want to remove both walls in the kitchen. Your drawings in the latest post are way out of scale, and give a totally different picture. The way the beams were drawn in option A, suggest the guy who advised you isn’t a structural engineer, as no structural engineer would run beams such that one beam is cut, and therefore not a beam at all. It could just be the way you drew it or you totally misunderstood what he said.

You should note that although the beams are in the same plane and connect to each other , they work as a team of two beams. One is the main or primary beam, going from outside wall to stair wall. The other is the secondary beam going from entrance nib wall to the primary beam. These beams will replace both the walls around the “L” of the kitchen and open it up.

The loads in the stair wall post are transfer to the concrete wall below in the garage. The post near the entrance will also need to be checked how it relates to the garage for support. It may be another beam is required in the garage to take this load. Again I’m surprised the engineer hasn’t mentioned this.

In the professions, an architect draws where he wants to put beams, a structural engineer works out the loads and size of beams, the architect in turns checks the dimensions to ensure they fit within the structure.

You need accurate plans of all three levels drawn (if you don’t have them already) so loads and beam sizes can be worked out. Just remember, loads are transferred from the top storey, ground floor and basement garage to the ground. Beams are horizontal and sit on posts or columns at each level which are vertical. These columns line up with each other all the way down to the ground, where the final post or column would normally sit on a solid concrete pad or footing.

Doing this exercise without professional help is a disaster waiting to happen. If you don’t heed this advice please confirm so I’ll stop wasting valuable time.

Cheers, Joe from OZ

I had plans drawn, but hey won't attach - Sorry about that, I'll see what else i can do. Gary, if your monitoring, your file size of 100K limit is just too small. I can't attach a 91.6K plan.
 

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