Removing a wall to create an open-floor plan seems easy enough but without proper planning, it could become a construction disaster. “You should hire an engineer or architect,” said Chris Dvorak, owner of Dvorak Drafting Consultants. “It’s like using Miss Utility. Otherwise you’re doing this at your own peril.”
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Any architect or contractor can tell if a wall is load-bearing, said Jim Rill, of Rill Architects. The most important fact to know before taking a sledge hammer to it.
Interior load-bearing walls, as well as exterior walls, rest on a concrete foundation and support the infrastructure of the house. Some interior walls are non-bearing and serve as room dividers, essential for layout but not necessary for the home’s structural integrity. Determine what a wall is before knocking it down.
Dvorak said when he walks into a house he first looks at floor joists to determine which walls might be bearing. Builders use floor joist to anchor wall frames.
“Sometimes I use the direction of the wood floor to determine which walls are load-bearing. The wood usually runs perpendicular to the floor joist,” Dvorak said.
“That’s usually my first indicator.”
After surveying the floor, Dvorak said it’s important to check every level of the house. “You have to start in the basement. That’s where the foundation is,” he said. “Once you find a steel beam you can trace it to walls upstairs.”
A roof line and walls above wood or steel beams also can help determine which walls are load-bearing, as well as walls stacked on top of other walls.
Do-it-yourselfers need to carefully figure this out because removing the wall incorrectly could damage the structural integrity of the entire house.
“You wonder how the house is still standing and holding itself up,” said Rill of some projects he’s examined.
If a contractor removes a load-bearing wall, he replaces it with support beams. “If you remove a beam or load-bearing wall without replacing the support, the house is going to fall down,” Dvorak said. “Maybe it doesn’t fall down immediately. The floor itself may hold up but after some time, after it settles, you’ll start seeing cracks in the ceiling.”
Although necessary, these beams can be eyesores. They can be concealed, however, by incorporating them into the room design, usually as a column. Dvorak said a beam must be put on every level of the house.
“You have to trace the load all the way down,” he said.
Nadia Subaran, owner of Aidan Design in Bethesda, created a kitchen for Bethesda homeowners in which the contractor removed a load-bearing wall to create a larger opening between the kitchen and dining room.
The contractor wanted to use beams as support but the homeowners did not like that look. So instead, they installed corner posts that provide support at the two ends of the entryway from the kitchen into the dining room. A ceiling beam also was added to further strengthen the home’s structural integrity.
Even removing a non-load-bearing wall, which may seem an easy demolition, can create problems because, as Dvorak said, the term “non-bearing wall” is somewhat misleading.
“Every wall in the house is bearing some load,” he said. Along with disturbing electrical, plumbing, telephone, security and cable lines, demolishing a wall can compromise flooring and the ceiling. “Sometimes this creates sagging and other issues,” he added.
Rill said removing the wall is just one-tenth of the remodeling process. “You have to re-trim, re-floor and re-paint,” he said. “All of that stuff means something.”
