Another load-bearing wall thread

[mandg]

Hello Everyone!

Yes, I know that to be 100% sure, you should hire a professional to assess this.

I bought a house that I will get access to tomorrow, the house is a 1-1/2 story brick house from 1914 with a crawl space foundation.

Since the house is quite small, we want to tear out a wall in the house to make it a bit more open (see image), what worries me is whether it is load-bearing. However, I don't see how it could be load-bearing, but all interior walls are made of brick/concrete or some stone material, so it's difficult to assess. As the wall runs parallel to the roof trusses, it seems it shouldn’t be a problem. What do you think?

 

[Immobil]

If the direction of the trusses is the same as the wall, there should not be any problem.

 

[mandg]

Thanks for your quick response, however, what makes me a little uncertain is what the broker claims is the original drawing, on this one the wall between the bedroom/living room is missing.

Fu

 

[Immobil]

If you have the ridge in a "vertical" direction, it should work to take down the wall.

 

[MathiasS]

Good, then you know that wall isn't load-bearing either.

I would crawl up into the attic to ensure there’s no clever bracing around the chimney that could cause a load to be placed on the wall you want to remove. If there are just roof trusses in the usual way, I would knock down the wall as you planned, be careful so that parts of the chimney don't come with it (or, remove the chimney while you're at it.....)

 

[mandg]

Well, up to the attic... since I have an upper floor and no attic space...

Guess I'll have to keep the upper floor empty when I demolish


Don't want to take down the chimney, planning to install a stove for some coziness....

 

[Immobil]

Where are the walls located on the upper floor?

 

[mandg]

There is only one wall on the upper floor, this is placed after the chimney as seen from the kitchen. However, it is probably not load-bearing as it consists of 45*XX studs and plasterboard, therefore there is no brick wall going up to the upper floor...

I can add that it runs in line with the rafters.

 

[mandg]

I can point out that I have now removed the wall and the house and the upper floor are still standing....

Clay brick wall was no problem, took about 10 minutes with a sledgehammer...the stones were very soft...