narrow hallway

txbostont

I have a narrow rectangular hallway that leads from the kitchen to the laundry area. In the hallway is a door that leads into an outside alcove/small porch which opens to the back yard and deck area. The alcove is useless and if torn out would expand the area into the kitchen and eliminate the narrow hallway which really serves no function except to get from the kitchen to the laundry room. Matter of fact its so narrow that if we have any large objects in the front part of the house that we want in the back we have to carry them outside and through the back yard to get them to the back of the house. ( I know its hard to describe with pics) The house is concrete block and my question is:

How do I tell if the walls of the alcove are supporting walls or not? I would like to tear it out but, I am scared to do so without knowing what I'm up against. It would really suck if the roof fell in....

localtradesman

Look up in your attic...more than likely the joists are running from outside wall to outside wall....and more than likely criss cross over a center bearing wall. Check it out... The width of your house in otherwords...