I live in a house on Orust from the late 40s. It is 1.5 stories. I have attached a sketch of the ground floor and the upper floor of the house.
On the ground floor, we want to remove the wall that I have drawn in dashed lines. Then we will also install a window and a door in the exterior wall.
Now we are wondering if this wall is load-bearing. We have heard that it could be load-bearing to support the dormer on the second floor where our bedroom is. However, we do not understand how that could be.
What do you think about this?
On the ground floor, we want to remove the wall that I have drawn in dashed lines. Then we will also install a window and a door in the exterior wall.
Now we are wondering if this wall is load-bearing. We have heard that it could be load-bearing to support the dormer on the second floor where our bedroom is. However, we do not understand how that could be.
What do you think about this?
I'm pretty sure that the wall is not load-bearing. However, the walls that run parallel to the long sides, on either side of the chimney (assuming that’s what it is) and slightly offset, are load-bearing. On these walls, the floor joists for the upper floor overlap and are joined over the wall. If you have the chance to see either a floorboard or a board in the ceiling, you will see that it runs parallel to the long sides, which supports the assumption.
Yes, what we have done is that we have built support on both sides of the wall that is to be removed. Then we removed the wall. When the wall is gone, we see that there is a beam going from the chimney breast straight out to the outer wall where we'll have the window section. The beam is exactly above the wall we removed.
Above the wall we've removed is only our bedroom, and there are no walls on the second floor directly above the wall that is to be removed.
Above the wall we've removed is only our bedroom, and there are no walls on the second floor directly above the wall that is to be removed.
The floor beams run parallel to the short wall, that is, parallel to the wall that was removed. Among other things, there is a beam right above the old wall.
We contacted the civil engineer who had said that we needed to place a beam where the old wall was, and now he also thought that no additional beam was needed provided that the old beam in the ceiling was not spliced anywhere.
So after a careful inspection of the beam and confirming that it was not spliced, we have now removed the support, and everything looks good, and yes, it became airy.
Now, all that's left is to install windows in the outer wall and support it with an extra small beam, but that is dimensioned and ready.
We contacted the civil engineer who had said that we needed to place a beam where the old wall was, and now he also thought that no additional beam was needed provided that the old beam in the ceiling was not spliced anywhere.
So after a careful inspection of the beam and confirming that it was not spliced, we have now removed the support, and everything looks good, and yes, it became airy.
Now, all that's left is to install windows in the outer wall and support it with an extra small beam, but that is dimensioned and ready.
And thank you for all the help