Hello!
We are in the process of buying a house and planning some renovations as nothing has been done in 50 years. During the first renovation, we are going to remove a wall between the kitchen and the living room, but we are not 100% sure if the wall is load-bearing or not. I don't think the wall is load-bearing based on the roof trusses and the wall's thickness. The inspector also didn't think it was load-bearing. I have access to the floor plans and structural calculations from the municipality, but I can't understand the technical language well enough to be completely sure. What should I look for?
It's a split-level house built in 1968 with a concrete slab and a basement floor of concrete. The wall in question is on the top floor and only has the roof above it. According to the technical description, all interior walls are built with 1" x 3" studs c/c 30 cm, 1/8" hard wood fiberboard, 13 mm gypsum board on both sides. When it asks about load-bearing walls, it says "2 pcs," the same construction as the rest of the interior walls, but load-bearing walls usually have more than 1" x 3" studs?
Below are the calculations for the trusses.
We are in the process of buying a house and planning some renovations as nothing has been done in 50 years. During the first renovation, we are going to remove a wall between the kitchen and the living room, but we are not 100% sure if the wall is load-bearing or not. I don't think the wall is load-bearing based on the roof trusses and the wall's thickness. The inspector also didn't think it was load-bearing. I have access to the floor plans and structural calculations from the municipality, but I can't understand the technical language well enough to be completely sure. What should I look for?
It's a split-level house built in 1968 with a concrete slab and a basement floor of concrete. The wall in question is on the top floor and only has the roof above it. According to the technical description, all interior walls are built with 1" x 3" studs c/c 30 cm, 1/8" hard wood fiberboard, 13 mm gypsum board on both sides. When it asks about load-bearing walls, it says "2 pcs," the same construction as the rest of the interior walls, but load-bearing walls usually have more than 1" x 3" studs?
Below are the calculations for the trusses.
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Truss roofs are normally self-supporting. The walls that might be load-bearing are those running in the same direction as the roof ridge, meaning across the trusses and the joists of the intermediate floor.
In the basement/souterrain, there may be a so-called heart wall, including the short wall in the "garage". My guess is that the heart wall does not have a physically load-bearing function but is intended to support the weight of the intermediate floor if the joints of the beams give way. (Our heart wall has a few mm of air between it and the intermediate floor.)
On the ground floor/upstairs, there is no load-bearing interior wall, but the trusses can sag in the middle so that the wall between the living room & bedroom/kitchen area and the bathroom & lower bedroom provides some support. (Our trusses sag a little in the middle.)
In the basement/souterrain, there may be a so-called heart wall, including the short wall in the "garage". My guess is that the heart wall does not have a physically load-bearing function but is intended to support the weight of the intermediate floor if the joints of the beams give way. (Our heart wall has a few mm of air between it and the intermediate floor.)
On the ground floor/upstairs, there is no load-bearing interior wall, but the trusses can sag in the middle so that the wall between the living room & bedroom/kitchen area and the bathroom & lower bedroom provides some support. (Our trusses sag a little in the middle.)
Now, I'm not making any statement about whether the wall is load-bearing or not, but you can consider how many tons you can stack directly on top of a square constructed of wood with the dimensions 1" x 3" cc30 before it breaks, and think about what it means if the builder has cut corners and used those where it should be load-bearing.