Tearing down a downstairs wall in a two story house?

Question

I have a two story house (40 years old) and there is a room next to the kitchen that I want to tear down. I want an open space for my kitchen, dining room, and living area. We have already taken all the sheetrock off and are left with all the poles standing. How can we find out which poles are supporting the upstairs? or How can we find out if that roof has a steel pole that doesn't need support from the poles?

Answer 1

Some of these folks are making this more complicated than it needs to be. The only thing you need to do is find out if it is a "load bearing" wall. You find this out by looking in your attic and seeing which way the ceiling joists are running. If your wall is parallel to those joists, its NON load bearing and you can rip out all of those that you want to take. If your wall is perpendicular to those joists, it IS load bearing and you would need to instal a post and large joist in order to support the upper floor. If it is load bearing, I would suggest not taking it out at all. Cut a large opening and use a doubled up 2x6 above that opening for support, or just cut a large "window" to connect the rooms visually. Either way, you'll need to support whatever you cut out if it is a load bearing wall.
If you are confused at all, better have someone come take a look at it. Better to pay a $50 consultation fee than have your second floor come crashing in!

Answer 2

Chances are you are about to make a bad mistake.Then again chances are you are not. There is about a fifty/fifty chance the room upstairs is getting ready to come down to the first floor and it will do it in a hurry.
If it is forty years old, it probably has rafters for the roof instead of truss. You can look in the attic and see which it has.
If it does have truss, they will hold there on self but if it is rafters there has to be something in the center to support them so this wall may be not only holding the floor upstairs, but may be holding the roof also.
Can you tell which way the floor joist are running compared to the wall you need to take down?
To be truthful with you, there are too many ifs and ands on this one for anyone to give you a correct answer without you answering some questions first and even then, it will be a back and forth thing.
If you e-mail me, @ [e-mail] I will give you my phone number and if you call, I'll help you figure out what to do.
In the worse case, you may need to put a girder beam up there for support and only have an opening 7' to 8'.
Best case, you can jerk it out and be happy, but please don't do it until you speak to someone that knows what they are talking about.
I once took a wall that was a roof supporting wall down and built a 24" truss to hold it up and the building inspector said it wouldn't work. That was about twenty five years ago and it's still there so it can be done, if done correctly. .

Answer 3

I'll assume at some corner/joint/seam/doorway/passage/ there is some load bearing support, but that can be determined by checking above the location of the wall.
In any case, even if not strictly a supportive wall holding up trusses to a roof, I'd install a double ledger/lintel, to support what does contact anything above the new opening.
Poles isn't exactly how I'd define what you're talking about, but again, you need to go above your current 1st level ceiling, then above the second level ceiling in the exact location, to determine load. Obviously there will be load, in the weight of that second story and above it, anyway. I'd also want to check which direction the rafters run as opposed to the direction the walls go in, IE: Parallel/Perpendicular.
40 years old is not OLD for a house at all, but the design in construction is most valid to answering all your questions. not EVERY house on the planet is built with trusses supporting a roof.

Steven Wolf
(the Rev.)

Answer 4

If you can send a picture to me i will be able to tell you. i am a home inspector and look for deficencies in homes all day long.
Normaly if you are going to take a wall out what you will need to do is brace it with some jack posts while you build a header (2 2x10's with 2 peices of osb or 5/8 plywood beteen them) then you will have to install this at the top of the wall with bracing on either side and under the edged of both ends. this will give you all the support you will need but it is hard to say if you can just remove the wall without haveing to worry without seeing the area or a print of the home.

Answer 5

In the ceiling of the room underneath, if there is a lateral truss under the poles, or if there are pillars, or more poles, it is loadbearing, and you will have a major structural issue if you remove the poles. The same applies to the floor above. If the poles you see are supporting a truss, or more poles, it bears the load from the floor above. If that is the case, then you will need to build an arch truss to support the floor above, and put pillars or butresses under the endpoints of the arch in the floor below. If you try to shift the weight of the floor above to a reinforced truss extending to the outside loadbearing walls, you will probably get bowing followed shortly by collapse. Remember that an arch truss also displaces weight at an angle outward from the arch, as well as down, so the pillars below need to be butressed.

Answer 6

The feeling you are being watched is just your imagination. What do you expect with all that ruckus going on. You are not haunted. All these things happening are easily played out by someone of this earth. There was no break-in because the person was already in the house. To get out he needed to make you fearful and huddle together so he could get out from another part of the house. So, he made a lot of racket to scare you. I'd keep complaining to authorities and keep checking for another way to get in because there is probably someone else there living with you. Have you checked the crawl space..hmm.

Answer 7

If your walls were going the opposite of your roof trusses then you shouldn't be tearing them down. You would almost need a triple joist going the lenght to support your upstairs & roof. The triple joist will be seen from now on unless you can lower your ceiling to the bottom of the joists.