Load bearing wall advice

JimmyTheWig

EachPenny wrote: »

Some people have bet their life.... and lost.

Not likely to lose your life if you bet that it _is_ load bearing.

JimmyTheWig

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

How can you tell if a wall is load bearing without a site visit?

Doozergirl managed it in post #8.

Doozergirl

EachPenny wrote: »

Yes, and no.

As has been said already, you need a structural engineer. What hasn't already been said is that loads are not just from the roof, walls and floors above. Some walls in buildings also carry horizontal loads, no amount of checking joists and floorboards will tell you for sure whether a wall is loadbearing or not, only the knowledge and experience of a structural engineer will do that competently.


Unless he was also a structural engineer then his advice was potentially dangerous if he limited his investigations to lifting a couple of floorboards.

I just wanted to reiterate this. It is pretty easy to spot a definitively load bearing wall without site visit.

It is very hard to confirm that a wall *is not* load bearing without a site visit. Even walls that were initially built as non load bearing can become so over time.

I don't think the money on a structural engineer's advice is ever wasted money. I have never taken advice from one without a site visit. In my mind it isn't particularly professional. I would rather pay for a site visit and have no paperwork at the end of it than the other way round.

EachPenny

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Not likely to lose your life if you bet that it _is_ load bearing.

In a theoretical case looking at a single wall in isolation you are correct.

But in reality walls are in buildings, and there are all manner of interactions between the different structural elements. There is a danger that by assuming that one wall is loadbearing, the unwary may come to a conclusion that another wall isn't loadbearing, or that the second wall is not carrying as much load as it actually is.

It is not something that bets or guesses should ever be made on.... it needs professional advice.

Sometimes even professionals make mistakes when it comes to understanding how loads are being transmitted through structures. A famous example is the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in 1981 where a seemingly trivial change to the design led to 114 people being killed. Although the type of structure is completely different, it is a good example as it demonstrates how easy it is to misunderstand how loads move through structures and that even minor changes can have a very significant effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse