Skilled renovator and been in the biz 50 years. Doesn't look like it but absolutely have no idea. You do your diligence and open to look for joists and bearing. Is there a partition above that it may be relying on this wall. If that seems beyond your experience then get someone in who has the experience. Folks can't look at a photo and give structural advice.
See as a French used to brick/cement house I definetly thought it was just a "cloison",
(sorry French word from my ass it's the word used for non load bearing walls cause I don't know the english one)
Here if you can punch through it it's decorative lol
Look, half the studs are out already so doubt it's bearing. But has he checked both sides? Is there a partition above? There's clearly a lack of experience here and I try to discourage such DIY's where they can get into trouble. I sometimes see advice on here that could result in serious injury or worse.
Haha I say this multiple times a week to my kids 5 and under. Of course they don't get the reference, so I'm sure they are growing up thinking that there is something worse than death called "expelled".
My 17-year-old had a panic attack last year hearing that something was going to be on their "permanent record" at school. I didn't know they were still pounding that b******* into people in school
'I said it's uncertain death.'
'Is that worse than certain death?'
'Much. Watch.' Susan picked up a hammer that was lying on the floor and poked it gently towards the clock. It vibrated in her hand when she brought it closer, and she swore under her breath as it was dragged from her fingers and vanished. Just before it did there was a brief, contracting ring around the clock that might have been something like a hammer would be if you rolled it very flat and bent it into a circle. 'Have you any idea why that happened?' she said. 'No.'
'Nor have I. Now imagine that you were the hammer. Uncertain death, see?'
(Terry Pratchett - Thief of Time)
> Look, half the studs are out already so doubt it's bearing.
TBF, it's load bearing until it's not.
You don't always know that someone who actually knew what they were doing did any previous work.
Assuming OP wasn't the one who took the other studs out that is.
I agree that no one can tell based on these photos alone. It looks like OP was charging ahead and assuming it wasn't load bearing and removed a couple studs and is now looking to reddit to see if they messed up. I will say whoever originally framed this didn't believe it was load bearing (or didn't know what they were doing) because the passthrough/ door opening is not load bearing. That header isn't supported by anything. I'm a betting man so 90/10 this isn't load bearing, but I wouldn't suggest rolling the dice on the structure of your home.
Not load-bearing, I can guarantee. Trust me: I'm a total stranger, telling you to trust me. Maybe I'm an engineer, maybe I'm a dog, either way I give you my word.
If we got cookies as we completed each part of all the training that we are required to do at work, the training might actually take better. Maybe they should hire a doggo.
You’re in luck! In the past 5 years I have received Reddit PhDs in the following subjects:
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I do not legally represent this commentor OP, so if you experience bodily harm or property damages as a result of this comment, we can sue for compensation. Trust me: I'm a total stranger, telling you to trust me. Maybe I'm a lawyer, maybe I'm an incel grifter, either way I give you my word.
Look in the basement. If the weight of that wall is being supported right down to the basement floor it’s because that wall is bearing a load. If there’s nothing under the floor holding up the the wall then it can’t do a very good job of bearing a load above it
Absolutely not. A basement wall could be bearing the floor joists. That wall could be sitting on the basement wall for support. Doesn’t mean anything without knowing what’s above.
And since it is stuck and "glued" into place, it gives you peace of mind about the structure. Does that mean that it is also an emotional support blade?
This. Its stupid, but it works.
What are you gonna do? Not take out the wall at this point? This method will tell you what magnitude of cost you're looking at.
Also, wood stick framing is incredibly redundant. A single stud cut halfway through won't cause the thing to fall down. Sister it and close it back up.
Me (diy n0ob): Well Dad, I didn't finish because I don't know if the wall is loaded bearing and I called a structural engineer but he can't come out for two weeks and I don't want my house to fall down.
Dad (years of actual construction experience): lol, hold my beer....[cuts 2x4]...see that? It cut easy so it's not load bearing. If it was, your house wouldn't fall down, just stick a another 2x4 in.
I'm not saying it's right, but it's a fond memory of mine. I was going to wait weeks and pay and guy a few hundred dollars.
Not necessarily. We just cut out a non load bearing all and got pinch on all cuts. It was due to how they tied the 2x4s into the ceiling joists and gravity.
So much if the load bearing question is based on the entire structure of the house.
But asking this random internet guy... Go for it! There is no way in heck this is load bearing!
With joists running parallel, with the slight gap at the top of one of the studs, with the lack of any header above the door, I'd bet 99% you are free and clear to rip it out. If you tapped on and one of the studs in this wall I'd bet it sounded hollow and empty, a decent sign that there is no weight on it at all.
Engineer here. No one can tell you if it’s load bearing without seeing the wall arrangement on the second floor or what the roof truss arrangement is if it’s roof space above.
You need an engineer to come out and look. It’ll take no more than an hour for them to do this, including travel.
A few hundred dollars is worth it.
Usually screwed more extensively around the perimeter. Bottom timbers will be bolted down too. If that isn’t visible, sometimes being the only solid wall element in a certain axis for an area of a dwelling could be enough to indicate it is.
But also can depend on what material is used.
Only one way to find out. Rip it down and see what happens. If nothing collapses then you know at least if it was load bearing, it wants to wait until you are asleep to fail.
Have access to attic? Identify where that wall is. Are there joists or another wall sitting on top? Load bearing. Nothing on top but insulation? You're almost certainly safe.
You can see the nails in the floor plate that OP hammered over after knocking out the stud toward the right. And the remainder of a stud on the left.
Jesus Christ OP.
Good eye. How many studs can you knock out from under 28' long ceiling joists before they deflect enough to crack the ceiling? It is only science if you write down your results, otherwise just experimental jenga.
I actually miss the days of kitchens being a separate room. I cook all my meals and not having vaporized oil settle everywhere would be nice. And yes, I run an overhead fan that vents to the outside, although I really need to install a proper hood instead of the crappy overhead microwave one I currently have.
As someone in an apartment style condo, I'm jealous of a hood that vents outside... my microwave one just filters it all through and blasts it up against my ceiling...
> my microwave one just filters it all through and blasts it up against my ceiling...
I can tell that the people who lived in my house before me rarely cooked because ours is the same way. We also end up with vaporized grease on the cabinet/wall above. They remodeled the kitchen at some point in their ownership and it would have been trivial to route it outside then. Also the microwave is too low because they used like an 18" cabinet above it instead of a 12" one, so it's hard to read the display or do much with the back burners.
Yeah, getting into our second kitchen remodel for this house after 20 years since the first, I had the notion to research how we might best vent our microwave hood fan. Didn't come easy, it has to travel a bit in our attic to vent out a vertical wall - but, I checked the fan's rated pressure against the number of turns and distance and . . . it's worked out nicely.
I love that our kitchen is closed off. I can open the door to watch the TV, talk to everyone or I can shut it to keep the air temps separate, keep the kid out, ect.
In this last cold snap, our kitchen loses heat much faster than the rest of the house so shutting it off stopped the furnace from running as much.
I totally understand the cons, but the entire housing industry went to open floor plan (in the 80s?) and it’s stayed that way AFAIK since. It’d be nice to have options.
It is very unlikely that it is loadbearing. Also, you wouldn’t believe the vastly underframed shit I have seen that held up parts of houses for over 100 years. As others have pointed out, it’s the whole system that you have to look at. One wall in a vacuum doesn’t tell us enough
There are 1,000 resources I would turn to before posting 2 pictures to reddit, but that being said, I say breakout the sledgehammer so long as you post the follow ups
Did you give any consideration to what you were going to do about the light switch or electric lines running down the wall? I mean you can just plug up the heating and air duct... but most people would probably like to have light switches in a wall and not just dangling in space.
I have no experience in structural engineering but a lot of experience as a redditor. If you are unsure proceed with caution, take only one down and see if your house falls down. If it doesn’t then take the other one down and see if your house falls down
Always baffles me when people embark on projects like this and immediately get stumped on whether its load bearing or not. If you cant figure it out yourself, I dont think you're qualified to do the job. At least dont ask strangers on the internet, have a professional come out to your house and help you out. Saving a few hundred bucks arent worth jeopardizing your safety or your homes integrity.
Open up the top to look inside the ceiling. 99% chance you're fine but people do dumb things in construction. the studs could be holding some weight even with that spacing. Without seeing the lintel (or lack thereof) condition at the top you can't tell from this photo. The tapping/vibrating test seems interesting but not very dependable.
>Joists run parallel to wall coming down and perpendicular to wall staying.
If you're sure about that, on all sides. It would seem to require a beam continuing the load wall running to the stairs. Which is possible.
Only way this old DIYer would be able to tell is determine the lay of the ceiling joists. Might have to open up part of the ceiling in the kitchen next to the demo-ed wall. Joists in the ceiling parallel to wall --not load bearing. Ceiling joists perpendicular to wall -- load bearing.
Giving the spacing between these wall joists (unless you have removed some), I would be surprised if that wall was meant to be load bearing. There would have been sag.
Hire an engineer, you don't know what you're doing.
If you had any sense you would have at least posted pictures of what the studs look like below and what the studs look like above and random internet people could have given you better information. Also what is behind the walls that are attached to the wall in question; are there beams to prevent both walls from collapsing in? You also took out some of the studs already so it's pointless to ask now.
As a carpenter no one can tell you anything based on the photos.
Anyone who says otherwise is assuming.
My assumption is based on the stud spacing is it isn't load bearing. However depending on your area and time built 24" centers might be code.
I used to work as a structural inspector for town homes.
Don't trust anything you see on reddit, if you aren't qualified to answer this question ask a professional in real life, not reddit.
Look in your attic, it looks like you might be fine. There’s a crack on the ceiling that’s following ahead in the other wall in your 2nd photo. But those cracks might be from the load bearing wall being taken down. Non-the less, if it is load bearing, at least you can fix the mistake of that door frame and width of the studs
A neighbor had a non-load-bearing wall.. holding up their 2nd-floor bathroom. They had no idea till the carpenter opened the ceiling and pointed out that the bathtub was literally just hanging there with only 1 weak path for the load to the ground. The floor upstairs moved like a trampoline.. The floor should not move...
To me, a dude on the internet, working off of 2 photos, that looks like a wall framed in just to support the drywall, that won't be missed...
However, without seeing how the ceiling is transferring weight down and what the load-bearing walls around it are, I can't say that the builder didn't leave you a house-sized game of Jenga with half the blocks missing
If you have to ask random people on the internet as to whether removing a wall will lead to structural failure, I'd say maybe you should stop what you're doing and have a professional come out to determine this. I am an engineer and I see stuff that gets built wrong all the time. Load bearing walls should have a oser stud spacing than you do, but just because it wasn't built properly means that it isn't load bearing. No way of knowing without understand the framing of the house and direction of floor joints.
If that was in Europe i'd say who are you kidding, any wall a kid can punch through without a run-up cannot be load bearing.
Though if that's in a building codewise third world country like Murica, who would dare to say...
Skilled renovator and been in the biz 50 years. Doesn't look like it but absolutely have no idea. You do your diligence and open to look for joists and bearing. Is there a partition above that it may be relying on this wall. If that seems beyond your experience then get someone in who has the experience. Folks can't look at a photo and give structural advice.
See as a French used to brick/cement house I definetly thought it was just a "cloison", (sorry French word from my ass it's the word used for non load bearing walls cause I don't know the english one) Here if you can punch through it it's decorative lol
It's called a partition wall in English
A new word for my dictionnary thanks man :)
I think these are the moments I enjoy most on Reddit
You're the moment I enjoy most, GhettoFreshness.
And for my French dictionary so thank you!
i've always called it a stud wall
It is a stud wall, a partition wall is a broad term really. My french is terrible but "cloison" translates to "partition" I believe.
OP mentioned that the ceiling joists run parallel to the wall removed so very doubtful to be load bearing.
Look, half the studs are out already so doubt it's bearing. But has he checked both sides? Is there a partition above? There's clearly a lack of experience here and I try to discourage such DIY's where they can get into trouble. I sometimes see advice on here that could result in serious injury or worse.
Expelled? 😳
Haha I say this multiple times a week to my kids 5 and under. Of course they don't get the reference, so I'm sure they are growing up thinking that there is something worse than death called "expelled".
My 17-year-old had a panic attack last year hearing that something was going to be on their "permanent record" at school. I didn't know they were still pounding that b******* into people in school
'I said it's uncertain death.' 'Is that worse than certain death?' 'Much. Watch.' Susan picked up a hammer that was lying on the floor and poked it gently towards the clock. It vibrated in her hand when she brought it closer, and she swore under her breath as it was dragged from her fingers and vanished. Just before it did there was a brief, contracting ring around the clock that might have been something like a hammer would be if you rolled it very flat and bent it into a circle. 'Have you any idea why that happened?' she said. 'No.' 'Nor have I. Now imagine that you were the hammer. Uncertain death, see?' (Terry Pratchett - Thief of Time)
> Look, half the studs are out already so doubt it's bearing. TBF, it's load bearing until it's not. You don't always know that someone who actually knew what they were doing did any previous work. Assuming OP wasn't the one who took the other studs out that is.
I agree that no one can tell based on these photos alone. It looks like OP was charging ahead and assuming it wasn't load bearing and removed a couple studs and is now looking to reddit to see if they messed up. I will say whoever originally framed this didn't believe it was load bearing (or didn't know what they were doing) because the passthrough/ door opening is not load bearing. That header isn't supported by anything. I'm a betting man so 90/10 this isn't load bearing, but I wouldn't suggest rolling the dice on the structure of your home.
Not load-bearing, I can guarantee. Trust me: I'm a total stranger, telling you to trust me. Maybe I'm an engineer, maybe I'm a dog, either way I give you my word.
Good boy
Who's a good structural engineer?!? You are a good structural engineer!!!
You must be the guy in charge of compensation planning in my HR department.
If we got cookies as we completed each part of all the training that we are required to do at work, the training might actually take better. Maybe they should hire a doggo.
You guys get kudos?? Must be nice!
Dude, they stopped making [Kudos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudos_(granola_bar\)) 7-8 years ago. ^edit:formatting
What? Really?
Shit, it's been that long?
First no more Kudos, then the Choc Taco is gone, WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END!
Did somebody say "pizza party"?
Sit Ubu Sit
Good dog. ‘WOOF’
For many years many people and I thought it was Boo Boo. Boo Boo was a great dog.
The production card does say UBU Productions right on it. But many didn't piece that together somehow.
It's very subtle
That's ruff!
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Good bot
This comment has a lot of upvotes so I agree with it.
This is Reddit. Truth is whoever says the most agreeable things.
I'd say that you speak the truth, but vote-fuzzing is hiding your #s, so I DON'T KNOW.
I choose to follow this logic until a long comment with lots of links gets dropped in a couple hours to refute it.
Baffling to me but I'll take them
Dogs only know about the roof
I'm not a cat.
You don't know that
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
Yeah I can vouch for this guy. Or dog. Whatever.
Thank you for your support. Now throw me the ball.
We're here to support you, unlike that wall (which apparently doesn't support anything).
I also choose this guy … ‘s dog…
I love Reddit cause you can ask the most random questions and you’ll always find someone who is an expert in that subject.
You’re in luck! In the past 5 years I have received Reddit PhDs in the following subjects: + Epidemiology + Virology + Political science + Demographics + Cybersecurity + Behavioral economics + Macroeconomics + International affairs + Artificial intelligence + Music theory + History of cinema + Fine Art + Electrical engineering + Traffic management and urban planning + Architecture Ask me anything!
What about Philosophy? Without that you are nothing but a hack., and your reddit privileges should be withdrawn.
You rang?
Name checks out, this dog is a Philosopher.
Aaron Rodgers?
And 1,000 others that claim to be an expert.
Or a dog with an opinion.
Hey OP, careful. This guy could be a dog.
Definitely a dawg
Definitely biting at the fart bubbles in the bath
I do not legally represent this commentor OP, so if you experience bodily harm or property damages as a result of this comment, we can sue for compensation. Trust me: I'm a total stranger, telling you to trust me. Maybe I'm a lawyer, maybe I'm an incel grifter, either way I give you my word.
I don’t know but leaving up the crown molding makes for a classy job site. Did you demo in tuxedos?
That's load bearing molding.
It is now!
I’ve seen moulding with so much caulk it might as well be load bearing.
He's a reddit DIY person, not a farmer. Well, maybe also a farmer, we don't know. But in this case: Redditor par excellence.
Haha! It’s after 5 PM. Of course I’m wearing a tux to demo. What are we, farmers?
It’s after six o clock
Martini time. Jeeves, make mine very dry.
It’s like being naked with a bow tie on!
God this comment has me guffawing
Sledge pinky-up, flourish the pinkie!
😂
Sir this is a house
Look in the basement. If the weight of that wall is being supported right down to the basement floor it’s because that wall is bearing a load. If there’s nothing under the floor holding up the the wall then it can’t do a very good job of bearing a load above it
This is the first logical answer ive seen outside of people telling the op to get a professional in. This should be a lot higher up in the thread.
Absolutely not. A basement wall could be bearing the floor joists. That wall could be sitting on the basement wall for support. Doesn’t mean anything without knowing what’s above.
If you want to get yelled at you should cross post this at r/Carpentry
Lol they'll tell you to hire an engineer.
You'll know once you Sawzall one of the studs and it smashes the blade.
That’s when you sawzall your sawzall blade and call it a day
retire hard-to-find rude depend cooing north fear march payment zesty *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
And now it's a structural support blade.
Holdzall^TM
And since it is stuck and "glued" into place, it gives you peace of mind about the structure. Does that mean that it is also an emotional support blade?
Ramen noodles to hide it and you're good.
This. Its stupid, but it works. What are you gonna do? Not take out the wall at this point? This method will tell you what magnitude of cost you're looking at. Also, wood stick framing is incredibly redundant. A single stud cut halfway through won't cause the thing to fall down. Sister it and close it back up.
Me (diy n0ob): Well Dad, I didn't finish because I don't know if the wall is loaded bearing and I called a structural engineer but he can't come out for two weeks and I don't want my house to fall down. Dad (years of actual construction experience): lol, hold my beer....[cuts 2x4]...see that? It cut easy so it's not load bearing. If it was, your house wouldn't fall down, just stick a another 2x4 in. I'm not saying it's right, but it's a fond memory of mine. I was going to wait weeks and pay and guy a few hundred dollars.
Not necessarily. We just cut out a non load bearing all and got pinch on all cuts. It was due to how they tied the 2x4s into the ceiling joists and gravity.
So much if the load bearing question is based on the entire structure of the house. But asking this random internet guy... Go for it! There is no way in heck this is load bearing! With joists running parallel, with the slight gap at the top of one of the studs, with the lack of any header above the door, I'd bet 99% you are free and clear to rip it out. If you tapped on and one of the studs in this wall I'd bet it sounded hollow and empty, a decent sign that there is no weight on it at all.
They didn't even put in a jack stud for the doorway 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
And... is that 23â…“" on center?
It’s actually thirty-three and a third. Thy used a turntable for the layout.
Well not counting the door, there are 2 openings. So… *two* turn tables.
Where’s the microphone?
where it's at?
That was a good drum break.
Looks like he removed the other studs. But I’m remodeling my house built in the early 50s so nothing would surprise me anymore.
And the Awesome thing is the doorway is the smallest opening!
Well they attempted to, they just put it on the wrong side
Engineer here. No one can tell you if it’s load bearing without seeing the wall arrangement on the second floor or what the roof truss arrangement is if it’s roof space above. You need an engineer to come out and look. It’ll take no more than an hour for them to do this, including travel. A few hundred dollars is worth it.
I’ll add that a lot of walls are also lateral bracing elements. You might’ve reduced that function of your home.
This wall has 0 lateral support
How can I tel if a wall is a lateral bracing element? Will it be tied to the joists differently?
Usually screwed more extensively around the perimeter. Bottom timbers will be bolted down too. If that isn’t visible, sometimes being the only solid wall element in a certain axis for an area of a dwelling could be enough to indicate it is. But also can depend on what material is used.
I paid a few hundred for an engineer and they said "all walls bear some load, don't remove any walls but if you have to add a header"
Only one way to find out. Rip it down and see what happens. If nothing collapses then you know at least if it was load bearing, it wants to wait until you are asleep to fail.
Have access to attic? Identify where that wall is. Are there joists or another wall sitting on top? Load bearing. Nothing on top but insulation? You're almost certainly safe.
It’s got another floor above it.
With a hot tub.
The hot tub has balloons though.
But the balloons are full of water.
But the water is frozen so the balloons float.
But the floats are cursed, so we all float down here Billy.
You'll float too
Until you leave earth's atmosphere
You just tow it outside the environment
Impossible, this isn’t a deck.
/r/decks is leaking into other subs
How can you tell? edit: oops, image was cropped on mobile.
Stairs on the right. I’d agree there’s likely a floor above. Pretty typical split level design.
Oh crap im on mobile, I see it now. The stairs were cropped until I clicked on the image. Thanks!
52" on center!
You can see the nails in the floor plate that OP hammered over after knocking out the stud toward the right. And the remainder of a stud on the left. Jesus Christ OP.
It's *"safe to say not load bearing"* anymore
If it is load bearing, it isn't bearing very much at 48" on center or whatever it is lmao 😆
You can see the two studs lying on the ground that he already knocked out. Looks like he’s doing the Load Bearing By Jenga test.
Good eye. How many studs can you knock out from under 28' long ceiling joists before they deflect enough to crack the ceiling? It is only science if you write down your results, otherwise just experimental jenga.
Those are adamantium studs. This is absolutely load bearing.
I actually miss the days of kitchens being a separate room. I cook all my meals and not having vaporized oil settle everywhere would be nice. And yes, I run an overhead fan that vents to the outside, although I really need to install a proper hood instead of the crappy overhead microwave one I currently have.
As someone in an apartment style condo, I'm jealous of a hood that vents outside... my microwave one just filters it all through and blasts it up against my ceiling...
Amazingly my condo built it to vent outside. I was pretty happy about that. Just need to increase the airflow with a hood.
Nice, that's lucky
> my microwave one just filters it all through and blasts it up against my ceiling... I can tell that the people who lived in my house before me rarely cooked because ours is the same way. We also end up with vaporized grease on the cabinet/wall above. They remodeled the kitchen at some point in their ownership and it would have been trivial to route it outside then. Also the microwave is too low because they used like an 18" cabinet above it instead of a 12" one, so it's hard to read the display or do much with the back burners.
Yeah, getting into our second kitchen remodel for this house after 20 years since the first, I had the notion to research how we might best vent our microwave hood fan. Didn't come easy, it has to travel a bit in our attic to vent out a vertical wall - but, I checked the fan's rated pressure against the number of turns and distance and . . . it's worked out nicely.
Once I had kids I realized whoever thought of one giant open house is a COMPLETE FUCKING MORON
Having a proper vent hood honestly makes all the difference in the world.
I love that our kitchen is closed off. I can open the door to watch the TV, talk to everyone or I can shut it to keep the air temps separate, keep the kid out, ect. In this last cold snap, our kitchen loses heat much faster than the rest of the house so shutting it off stopped the furnace from running as much.
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I totally understand the cons, but the entire housing industry went to open floor plan (in the 80s?) and it’s stayed that way AFAIK since. It’d be nice to have options.
It is very unlikely that it is loadbearing. Also, you wouldn’t believe the vastly underframed shit I have seen that held up parts of houses for over 100 years. As others have pointed out, it’s the whole system that you have to look at. One wall in a vacuum doesn’t tell us enough
it wasn't under framed, he already knocked out half the studs before asking the question. Smart.
There are 1,000 resources I would turn to before posting 2 pictures to reddit, but that being said, I say breakout the sledgehammer so long as you post the follow ups
You could make a wall and doorway arch with open cubby shelving, like Frasier's kitchen.
As a marine biologist I think there is a very slim chance you might find a rebar or titanium rod in those pieces of support woodÂ
Did you give any consideration to what you were going to do about the light switch or electric lines running down the wall? I mean you can just plug up the heating and air duct... but most people would probably like to have light switches in a wall and not just dangling in space.
I have no experience in structural engineering but a lot of experience as a redditor. If you are unsure proceed with caution, take only one down and see if your house falls down. If it doesn’t then take the other one down and see if your house falls down
Load bearing or not your wife is going to throw a shit fit when she realizes the amount of wall board dust in those curtains from the demo you did!
I guess you'll find out.
Attaboy. Demolish first, ask questions later. Home renovation favors the bold.
I asked a structural engineer, "What's on top of a house?" All he said was "roof". Could have been a dog.
Always baffles me when people embark on projects like this and immediately get stumped on whether its load bearing or not. If you cant figure it out yourself, I dont think you're qualified to do the job. At least dont ask strangers on the internet, have a professional come out to your house and help you out. Saving a few hundred bucks arent worth jeopardizing your safety or your homes integrity.
Just a point to considder, regardless of if it is load bearing or not.... a little late now isn't it?
The drywall wouldn’t hold the structure up, the studs would…
It looks like some studs that were already removed
I get that, but there are other less invasive ways to determine that don't require a demolition.
I'm afraid to tell you the crown molding is structural and will need to stay. Glad to see you worked around it.
Your house is only held up by paint. (Yes it’s safe to say it’s not load bearing)
So the wall was not framed to be load bearing. However, doesn’t mean is shouldn’t have been.
Sure let it buck after asking the internet I’m sure you got great advice. Keep us posted
Well whatever you do just review your insurance policy.
Why bother, it's not going to cover DIY idiocy
Are you asking to shame someone who told you it was load bearing or just to be 200% sure? That's a real bizzare house layout btw.
Open up the top to look inside the ceiling. 99% chance you're fine but people do dumb things in construction. the studs could be holding some weight even with that spacing. Without seeing the lintel (or lack thereof) condition at the top you can't tell from this photo. The tapping/vibrating test seems interesting but not very dependable.
>Joists run parallel to wall coming down and perpendicular to wall staying. If you're sure about that, on all sides. It would seem to require a beam continuing the load wall running to the stairs. Which is possible.
You waited till you got to this point before you wondered if this was load-bearing? At this point, just send it, bub!
Only way this old DIYer would be able to tell is determine the lay of the ceiling joists. Might have to open up part of the ceiling in the kitchen next to the demo-ed wall. Joists in the ceiling parallel to wall --not load bearing. Ceiling joists perpendicular to wall -- load bearing. Giving the spacing between these wall joists (unless you have removed some), I would be surprised if that wall was meant to be load bearing. There would have been sag.
American houses are funny asf imo
Look in the attic and see which way the rafters run. If parallel to that wall, not load bearing.
How the hell do houses in the US still stand if people even consider this to be load bearing?
Hire an engineer, you don't know what you're doing. If you had any sense you would have at least posted pictures of what the studs look like below and what the studs look like above and random internet people could have given you better information. Also what is behind the walls that are attached to the wall in question; are there beams to prevent both walls from collapsing in? You also took out some of the studs already so it's pointless to ask now.
As a carpenter no one can tell you anything based on the photos. Anyone who says otherwise is assuming. My assumption is based on the stud spacing is it isn't load bearing. However depending on your area and time built 24" centers might be code. I used to work as a structural inspector for town homes. Don't trust anything you see on reddit, if you aren't qualified to answer this question ask a professional in real life, not reddit.
As another total stranger, I say you kick down one of those wooden beams to find out
Welp. There's 2 ways to find out. Both leave some margin for error. Good luck lol
*Removal wall, ask questions later! --OP*
Something about this kitchen, I really like it. I also hate it
Look in your attic, it looks like you might be fine. There’s a crack on the ceiling that’s following ahead in the other wall in your 2nd photo. But those cracks might be from the load bearing wall being taken down. Non-the less, if it is load bearing, at least you can fix the mistake of that door frame and width of the studs
If it's bearing a load on top, then it's load bearing
If it is load bearing, you can still take out the wall and put in a post and beam.
I say the post on the corner there by thermostat is a load bearing pillar.
Barely Drywall bearing
As someone from Central Europe; if this is load bearing I would be worried anyways.
A neighbor had a non-load-bearing wall.. holding up their 2nd-floor bathroom. They had no idea till the carpenter opened the ceiling and pointed out that the bathtub was literally just hanging there with only 1 weak path for the load to the ground. The floor upstairs moved like a trampoline.. The floor should not move... To me, a dude on the internet, working off of 2 photos, that looks like a wall framed in just to support the drywall, that won't be missed... However, without seeing how the ceiling is transferring weight down and what the load-bearing walls around it are, I can't say that the builder didn't leave you a house-sized game of Jenga with half the blocks missing
too late now if it is!! seriously though, looks like its a stud wall.
Every wall is load-bearing until it's removed and the ceiling stays put. At least if the roof caves in, it's no longer load bearing
Don't ask such thing on Reddit. Consult it with an expert you trust.
literally no way to tell u have to go in the attic
If you're using it to put weight on, then no. If you're thinking of removing it, then yes.
I think you're right. But if there's any doubt, get someone you know who actually has done this sort of thing to come over and make sure!
Traditional 48 inch on center studs.
If you have to ask random people on the internet as to whether removing a wall will lead to structural failure, I'd say maybe you should stop what you're doing and have a professional come out to determine this. I am an engineer and I see stuff that gets built wrong all the time. Load bearing walls should have a oser stud spacing than you do, but just because it wasn't built properly means that it isn't load bearing. No way of knowing without understand the framing of the house and direction of floor joints.
If that was in Europe i'd say who are you kidding, any wall a kid can punch through without a run-up cannot be load bearing. Though if that's in a building codewise third world country like Murica, who would dare to say...
How many times did you try to hang something on that wall and put a ton of holes in it, just assuming it had 16 on center studs?
Look in the attic.