Hello,
We’re remodeling our bathroom and I would like to remove a wall that appears to be there for looks because of the style in the late 60s. I’m wondering if there is any possibility that this wall is a load bearing wall or if I’ll have any issues when I remove it. It appears to be more of a decorative wall to me but I would like a second opinion. The wall runs perpendicular to the ceiling joists but there isn’t anything bearing down on it when I go in the attic and the exterior wall which I know is load bearing is only about 5ft away. There are 3 or 4 ceiling joist that cross the wall and I plan to replace 1 (maybe more) of the ceiling joist because we found some termite damage when we pulled off the drywall. The house is a single story on a slab so nothing but concrete is below the wall. The house has a hip roof so i know all exterior walls will be load bearing. When i look in the attic there is nothing from the roof attaching to the wall, all that rests on it are the few ceiling joist that also extend to the wall the bathroom door is on which is what I believe is holding up the ceiling joists. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
I have attached a few pictures of the wall I am referring to along with some pictures of the attic above the wall. For the pictures in the attic, the wall in question is about a foot behind the duct work.
Replies
A double top plate and a pretty beefy header. It probably isn't structural that close to the outside wall but it's hard to say. Your joist run past one another somewhere, can you see where? It's usually toward the center of the house but not always.
Thanks for your comment! What do you mean the ceiling joists run past each other somewhere? Are you referring to where two ceiling joists ends meet and rest on a wall together and sit next to each other? Like what is shown below? If so, this point is either on the wall my bathroom door is on or my hallway wall. I know for a fact it's not on this wall.
You mentioned having a beefy header but what I noticed is that there is only one cripple stud above the header and there are about 4 ceiling joists that are above wall. Wouldn't you want a cripple stud below each ceiling joist if it is load bearing?
tc,
The drawing does show a typical load bearing wall supporting joists from each side of the structure, typically near the center, not near the outside wall as in your situation. What I see in your pix is a monster header that looks like it was a matter of convenience for simple minded framers.
I had a such a situation in my house, a long header over a bathroom pocket door, parallel to and 6" from a joist. It would have looked pretty beefy, except that one end was held up by two 16d toenails- not even a jack. A soffit in the kitchen was a ladder made of two 10 ft. 2x10s, held to the joists and studs by six 16d nails. So, beefy looking framing isn't always an indication of load-bearing structures.
BUT, if you're not comfortable making the determination yourself, you might want to get a second opinion from someone more experienced.
Look in adjacent rooms to see what the joist spans and spacings and joist sizes are. Unless there's mechanical or something in the attic, the loadings are going to be the same all over the attic.
The other way is to replace the wall with a beam. That can have an aesthetic advantage.
Thank you everyone for the replies! They've been very helpful. The adjacent rooms ceiling joists span the entire length of the bathroom without issue. Im going to remove the wall because there is nothing that tells me this is a load bearing wall.