Attic Bearing Wall

Exterior walls are walls that form the perimeter or outer footprint of a house.

Attic bearing wall. So how do you know whether a wall is load bearing. Walls that are stacked may be load bearing. Look at the structure of the house and ask the following questions. Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction.

Using this technique you ll get a better idea of the location of the load bearing walls in your house. Once you ve reached your house s lowest point look for walls whose beams go directly into the concrete foundation. If a wall doesn t have any walls posts or other supports directly above it it s far less likely that it s load bearing. If the wall is located directly under the attic you can go up there to study the positions of the beams and joists.

Examine the roof structure from outside. Look inside the attic if possible to identify the direction in which the rafters or joists travel. Exterior walls are almost always load bearing. The important thing to remember is that if a wall is load bearing it is transferring that load to something underneath it.

Ceiling or floor joists that are spliced over the wall or end at the wall mean the wall is bearing. Enter the basement and inspect the. Adding a room in an attic can change the entire load bearing status of the walls below. This is also true when looking in the attic.

Look for these from the attic. Load bearing walls typically run in. Additionally most home s exterior walls are load bearing. If you have an unfinished.

A load bearing wall transfers load all the way down to the building s foundation. Posts on either side of the openings support the beams. Where there are windows and doors the walls include beams or headers spanning across the tops of the openings. A load bearing wall is any wall that holds up the weight of the structure above and the people furniture supported by that structure.

Some bearing walls are easy to spot see the central wall in figure b. Note the direction the roof ridge runs. To confuse matters further some types of construction such as post and beam or steel girder may not have any bearing walls at all except for the outside walls. If your wall conforms to the situation shown you can be sure it s load bearing.

The floors above roof structure people and furniture are the loads that the wall has to support. You should see this at the foundation level whether wood. If the wall in question is on the second floor look to see if there is a. How to find a load bearing wall 1.