Can I take out a support wall without damaging my roof?
Question:I want to make my two bedrroms in the upstirs into a master bedroom but there is a wall i think its a suypport wall and i want to remove it how would i do this if i can do itt at all and what would i need to do?
Answers:
Yes it is possible. There is a tremendous amount of work for the do it yourselfer. to do this, you need to literally support every individual floor joist and apply whats known as a "sister joist" alongside each floor joist going from the top plate of both outside walls your keeping. These should be made using LVL's or microlam material. They are better at apanning longer lengths and are 10 times stronger structurally than standard dimentional lumber. Again, don;t take this lightly, it should be structurally engineered, and approved by your local building official before you even attempt anything. Imformation given here is a standard, not an operational to do. Good luck, hope this helps.
You cannot take out a load bearing wall without first supplying relief for the load somewhere else, to redistribute the weight. Anyways, this is something only a professional should be looking at and will be able to tell you if it is a load bearing wall or not and what if anything you can do about it.
I would recommend consulting an expert to determine if it is a load bearing wall. If it is, and you want to continue with your project, which sounds like a good deal, I would remove the majority of the physical wall structure and redesign it so that there are columns with a half-height wall in between them (waist high). You could do something fancy like putting a fish tank or fireplace in the wall while leaving in the supporting beams. I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain.
You need a structural engineer to design a replacement for the wall in the form of a support beam.
you need to support it some other way first.
You should be able to take a maximum of 10 feet but definitely get some professional help on this project.
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