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I want to enlarge my livingroom. The street side wall is about 25 feet and 9 ft to the ceiling from inside. There is a second floor. I want to cut the wall just below the second floor joists, add a header and expand the livingroom with the space I now have for the porch. From what I read here, I guess I can leave T&G siding on one side of the wall and attach plywood to the wall and the header for strength. On the other side, but, I want to cut all the way to the outside wall rather than leaving 4 ft of the wall. Can I use diagnal brace (4×4?) for this side for bracing as well as decoration? I plan to do the same for the second floor directly above the livingroom addition, but I figure that once the first floor is braced, the second floor framing becomes stick built problem. I would appreciate all your thoughts and thanks in advance.
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NJ - I don't understand what "From what I read here, I guess I can leave T&G siding on one side of the wall and attach plywood to the wall and the header for strength." means but I suggest that a 25 foot beam is going to need some hefty columns and foundations under the ends. I figure on supporting the whole thing with a simple beam - and not bother trying to get a composit action with the existing wall and plywood - just too complicated to be worth it. If the 4' and diagonal is for shear, there may be other ways to do that.
You may want to look at ways of not having such a deep header - like using steel buried in the intermediate floor plane.
Removing a 25' load bearing wall is not terribly difficult but you've got to be pretty sure of your own engineering ability - or hire a structural engineer to review.
(Any chance you could live with a couple of interior columns - like 5-6 feet in from either end? Would certainly simplify matters and could be a nice architectural design feature.)
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I want to enlarge my livingroom. The street side wall is about 25 feet and 9 ft to the ceiling from inside. There is a second floor. I want to cut the wall just below the second floor joists, add a header and expand the livingroom with the space I now have for the porch. From what I read here, I guess I can leave T&G siding on one side of the wall and attach plywood to the wall and the header for strength. On the other side, but, I want to cut all the way to the outside wall rather than leaving 4 ft of the wall. Can I use diagnal brace (4x4?) for this side for bracing as well as decoration? I plan to do the same for the second floor directly above the livingroom addition, but I figure that once the first floor is braced, the second floor framing becomes stick built problem. I would appreciate all your thoughts and thanks in advance.