I have an acquaintance whom I thought I would help demolish a wall and make it a bit more airy.
It started when he contacted a carpenter about the job. The carpenter determined by tapping on the wall that it wasn't load-bearing and wanted over 6200:- to knock down the wall and tidy up. I figured there was some money to be saved by doing the job myself, and after drilling into the wall, I quickly established that it's a wall of lightweight concrete!
I know nothing about construction techniques, etc., but it seems strange to me that it wouldn't be load-bearing. There's an upper floor with the same external measurements as the ground floor (about 70 m2, square). This makes me think it's load-bearing since the ground floor can largely be divided into four rooms (with a load-bearing "cross"?).
To the questions!
- Is there a simple way to determine whether the wall is load-bearing or not?
- If the wall is load-bearing, what is the easiest way to "build away" the wall?
Personally, as a layman, I think you might be able to place a glulam beam against the ceiling on standing glulam at each side (the wall is currently 360cm). Is it possible with the right dimensions?
It started when he contacted a carpenter about the job. The carpenter determined by tapping on the wall that it wasn't load-bearing and wanted over 6200:- to knock down the wall and tidy up. I figured there was some money to be saved by doing the job myself, and after drilling into the wall, I quickly established that it's a wall of lightweight concrete!
I know nothing about construction techniques, etc., but it seems strange to me that it wouldn't be load-bearing. There's an upper floor with the same external measurements as the ground floor (about 70 m2, square). This makes me think it's load-bearing since the ground floor can largely be divided into four rooms (with a load-bearing "cross"?).
To the questions!
- Is there a simple way to determine whether the wall is load-bearing or not?
- If the wall is load-bearing, what is the easiest way to "build away" the wall?
Personally, as a layman, I think you might be able to place a glulam beam against the ceiling on standing glulam at each side (the wall is currently 360cm). Is it possible with the right dimensions?
It is the wall marked with a red frame that I want to remove. As you can see, it's on the ground floor, and directly under that wall on the basement level, there is no wall. This might indicate that it's okay to remove it? If that is the case, does the upper floor rest on the wall that runs across the house in the middle?
Given the appearance of the attic, the rafters and the joists between the basement and the ground floor most likely run from left to right (99.9%). In other words, it should be clear to demolish the marked wall. The wall in the basement that runs along the entire hobby room is 99.9% load-bearing; the wall directly above in the ground floor is probably load-bearing, but they don't have to be.
Do you also have plans for the floor joists?
Depending on the municipality, certain drawings may be available at the municipal building committee.
/Torpalainen
/Torpalainen