How to find a load bearing wall.
Bearing wall for attic.
Using this technique you ll get a better idea of the location of the load bearing walls in your house.
This is also true when looking in the attic.
August 19 2020 at 2 23 pm.
If the wall is located directly under the attic you can go up there to study the positions of the beams and joists.
A load bearing wall almost always has ceiling or floor framing running perpendicular to it.
Every house uses load bearing walls to stabilize the structure and support the weight of the home above.
By contrast a non load bearing wall sometimes called a partition wall is responsible only for holding up itself.
Even without a second story the roof weighs a lot and.
For instance hanging or cutting ceiling joists adding stairways and adding attic rooms usually require the changing of non load bearing walls to load bearing walls.
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 you re unsure ask a building contractor or your local building inspector for advice.
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.
During home renovations non load bearing walls can be made to bear weight and vice versa.
Find these by measuring or by studying a floor plan of your house.
Load bearing walls support the weight of a floor or roof structure above and are so named because they bear a load.
Look for these from the attic.
Adding a room in an attic can change the entire load bearing status of the walls below.
Climb up to the attic.
Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction.
If you don t have access to your attic you can always look at your.
If it is a small home usually roof framing is in one direction only north south or east west.
The best way to tell if a wall is load bearing is to go in the attic ceiling space to see if there is any framing joists rafers trusses supported by that wall.
Walls that are stacked may be load bearing.
Also notice how the non load bearing walls from the picture above are parallel to the wall framing in the picture below.
