How to Tell if a Wall is Load Bearing

How can you tell if a wall is a load bearing wall without original blueprints?

Basically, how can a lay person look at or feel to find out for sure if they are load bearing?
Dawn


Hi Dawn,

It is difficult to determine load bearing walls. I have seen carpenters with decades of experience “screw up”.

Regardless of what you read on the internet from “experts” you need to spend a few hundred bucks and have a structural engineer determine load bearing walls and suggest how to deal with their removal.

He or she will show you what needs to be done to “shore up” during removal and what can be done if a load bearing wall needs to be removed.

Beams or posts are usually utilized for load bearing wall removal and both methods can be made to look attractive and blend in with current architectural detail.

In construction, money well spent on expert professional advice usually saves money and headaches down the road.

Good luck,
Carl Heldmann, byoh.com