How do I remove a non load bearing wall in my house and have the certainty that time has not loaded it ?

Question

I am removing a small room divider to unite two rooms. The house was built in 62. There is only an empty attic above and it is a one floor house. I can modify the partition to reinforce it on top but dont know how. This way I could cut away the studs and have the expanded room. Any expertise would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Make sure your roof truss is running the opposite way. cut everything away from the studs and look at the entire run of existing studs.
Take a 2x6 and cut the same height as the existing studs minus about 3/8"
Place beside a existing stud and remove that existing stud. If your ceiling moves down on top of the 2x6, you have a problem and re install the existing stud you knocked out. If not, continue carefully removing one at the time.

Answer 2

First of all, you say it is non-load bearing. Check to make certain that the ceiling joists bridge the wall below that you desire to remove. Now by bridging, I mean no splices in the joists at a critical location. Many houses of that era were built as one big space and then partitioned off. If this is the case you are home free. If the wall that you want to remove has joist splices on it, you will need to support the spliced area with a beam either in the attic space or down below. The beam below could be supported on each side of the room with double studs leaving the majority of the opening to join the two rooms. Hopefully your assessment of the wall not being a load bearing wall is correct - you should be able to look in the attic to see what direction the ceiling joists are running and whether they have critically located splices in the area of the affected wall. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

The first two answers are valid. Check Truss or rafter direction, and what is structurally in place over the room divider wall.

It seems unlikely,,,as you state the current purpose, that LOAD would be borne on THAT section.

Certainly you might also consider a slight drop down from the ceiling and a Lintle, Suppoted by any adjacent studs, which may in fact "be load bearing"

Rev. Steven