My dad and I started working on a wall that we assumed was not load-bearing. But once we opened the wall, we noted a post and assumed it was load-bearing. We dug up the drawings and noted on them that this seems to be the case. Attached is a picture where I marked the post in red. The idea behind our demolition was to move the door that goes from the kitchen to the guest room. Move it so that you can enter the guest room via the laundry room instead. This is to remodel the kitchen in the fall and add additional tall cabinets where the door stands today. To do this, the closet had to be torn down... And yes, that's where we noted that we had a load-bearing beam. To the left of the closet, seen from the drawing, in the laundry room, is an electrical panel, hence the door cannot be moved there. However, we have a thought that allows us to leave the post as it is. What about the blue corner of that wall? Is there any chance it also contributes to something load-bearing? Or can we take down that corner with a clear conscience? The corner appears to consist of 2 pieces of 120x45 studs.
In the sectional drawing, a wall under the roof ridge is depicted on both levels, which usually indicates that the wall is load-bearing. Likewise, there is a beam above the opening between the hall and the dining area, one between the living room and the library, and one along the staircase according to the floor plan. It is therefore likely that on at least the entrance level there are load-bearing walls or other load-bearing structures roughly under the roof ridge all the way. Presumably, except for the beams along the two closets, the upper bathroom wall, and continuing to the left and around the bedroom's two closets and over to the outer wall. Exactly how it is resolved in the blue corner, I do not know, but as far as I can assess, the entire wall between the closets and the laundry room is load-bearing, as is the wall between the laundry room and the bedroom.
Any intervention in load-bearing structures should be reported to the municipality and approval must be obtained from there before starting the intervention. It is safest to hire a structural engineer who can check how it is constructed and what reinforcements are required if, for example, you want to put in a door.
In the sectional drawing, a wall under the roof ridge is drawn on both floors, which usually indicates that the wall is load-bearing. Similarly, there is a beam above the opening between the hall and dining area, one between the living room and library, and one along the stairs according to the floor plan. It is therefore likely that at least on the entrance floor there are load-bearing walls or other load-bearing structures approximately under the roof ridge all the way. Probably excluding the beams along the two closets, the upper bathroom wall, and continuing to the left and around the two bedroom closets and over to the outer wall. Exactly how it is resolved in the blue corner I do not know, but as far as I can assess the entire wall between the closets and the laundry room is load-bearing, as is the wall between the laundry room and the bedroom.
All interventions in load-bearing structures must be reported to the municipality, and approval must be obtained from them before beginning the intervention. It is safest to hire a structural engineer who can check how it's constructed and what reinforcements are required if, for example, you want to install a door.
The plan is not to make a new opening but to install a door where the closets are today. And to close off the one that is from the kitchen. Wouldn't that mean no intervention is made in the load-bearing? Or am I thinking wrong? What confuses me is the blue corner with two 120x45 studs. If these can be removed, everything will be fine, right?
I believe that the blue corner is load-bearing and possibly the entire "horizontal" wall between the laundry room and the closets.
That was indeed correct. Instead, we're considering the following. To move the single 120x45 directly against the glulam beam (by move, we mean inserting a new one and then removing the existing one) as the overlying beam ends at the glulam post. See pictures. The idea is then to preserve the glulam post as well as the "blue" corner and create a passage between them of about 75 cm. This way, we can place the door where we want. A new consideration then is whether it would be okay to saw into the floor joists where the post and the two 120x45 in the corner stand? Can they be notched around so that they stand on squares that match their size?
BirgitS said:
