Hello All,
I have a two story house built in 1973 and I feel like i may have just discovered a load bearing wall on the first floor that may not have proper support. I don't have formal structural training, but it appears that this wall is parallel to the floor joists in the basement and is not directly over them, which makes me now nervous. I hope I am simply not aware of acceptable framing practices and since the house has been standing for nearly half a century that I should be fine. But for peace of mind, here I am.
Firstly, I can confirm that the wall is bearing load. The second story space directly above is living space, and the 1st floor ceiling joists run perpendicular to this wall, with the ends lapped on top of it. Now I'm no physics professor, but this tells me the wall is load bearing. This wall has some utilities running through it from basement to second floor (some electrical, ductwork, and waste line). There is a 3" PVC waste line that runs directly through, from second story to the basement. When I take a look in the basement, I notice that two floor joists (2x10s) are doubled up near where the wall sits, but not directly underneath. The wall sits just to the inside of one of the joists, which is evident as the PVC waste line pushes through the subfloor into the basement, directly below the wall. There are no cross blocks between the joists either. From what I can tell, the wall is supported by the plywood subfloor only, even though it's less than an inch away from the doubled-up joists. This wall spans about 12 feet like this, with bathrooms and bedrooms above it on the second story.
I'm throwing in some photos - one of the wall back in 2011 when we tore it open for some refinishing and water leak repair, which shows the joists running perpendicular above it. And two photos of the floor directly below it, showing the doubled up joists just next to where the waste line dumps out.
So, someone please tell me I'm paranoid and that this is common and acceptable framing practice. I would add some blocking between joists in the basement to make me feel like I am adding some type of support, but there isn't much viable space due to how the utilities are run, and I would prefer to not have to reroute everything unless this is truly an issue. Does anyone have any thoughts here?
Thanks!
I have a two story house built in 1973 and I feel like i may have just discovered a load bearing wall on the first floor that may not have proper support. I don't have formal structural training, but it appears that this wall is parallel to the floor joists in the basement and is not directly over them, which makes me now nervous. I hope I am simply not aware of acceptable framing practices and since the house has been standing for nearly half a century that I should be fine. But for peace of mind, here I am.
Firstly, I can confirm that the wall is bearing load. The second story space directly above is living space, and the 1st floor ceiling joists run perpendicular to this wall, with the ends lapped on top of it. Now I'm no physics professor, but this tells me the wall is load bearing. This wall has some utilities running through it from basement to second floor (some electrical, ductwork, and waste line). There is a 3" PVC waste line that runs directly through, from second story to the basement. When I take a look in the basement, I notice that two floor joists (2x10s) are doubled up near where the wall sits, but not directly underneath. The wall sits just to the inside of one of the joists, which is evident as the PVC waste line pushes through the subfloor into the basement, directly below the wall. There are no cross blocks between the joists either. From what I can tell, the wall is supported by the plywood subfloor only, even though it's less than an inch away from the doubled-up joists. This wall spans about 12 feet like this, with bathrooms and bedrooms above it on the second story.
I'm throwing in some photos - one of the wall back in 2011 when we tore it open for some refinishing and water leak repair, which shows the joists running perpendicular above it. And two photos of the floor directly below it, showing the doubled up joists just next to where the waste line dumps out.
So, someone please tell me I'm paranoid and that this is common and acceptable framing practice. I would add some blocking between joists in the basement to make me feel like I am adding some type of support, but there isn't much viable space due to how the utilities are run, and I would prefer to not have to reroute everything unless this is truly an issue. Does anyone have any thoughts here?
Thanks!
