I’m expanding our laundry room. It shares a common wall with the garage, so I’m basically “bumping it out” into the garage. I’m 99% sure that the house/garage wall is load bearing, but with the bump-out, I can transfer the load to the new house/garage wall that will be about 6 feet out. Is this acceptable? Will the load “transfer” okay? I’d hate to have a header in the middle of the new laundry room, but will obviously do that if necessary. Thanks for any thoughts on the project!
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If the ceiling joists are perpendicular to the wall being moved, it is load bearing. If so, you must have a beam. It can be a recessed beam, however. Build a temporary wall on each side of the wall, then cut the jopists off so a beam can slip up between them. Put joist hangers on each joist to attach to the beam. Not too sure it is a DIY project.
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As in all things in life, it depends. One story or multi-story? Are you sure that it truly is a load bearing wall? As an aid to answering that question, do the ceiling joists run parallel to the wall or perpendicular to the wall? Perpendicular and the odds just shot up that it truly is load bearing, Parallel and it should NOT be load bearing. If it is load bearing, then the next question is what size are the ceiling rafters? If the house is single story, can you get above the wall in the attic? Are the two ceiling heights the same? IF the wall is load bearing, and you cannot get access above the wall, then I would use I-beam steel, supported on lolly columns that have direct load bearing to a slid footer, or basement wall. A Sawzall with a metal cutting blade will cut the beam. before you begin demolition, place the beam on the floor next to the wall to be removed, then build two temporary walls, one on either side of the wall to be removed about 3 feet out. I use 4×4’s for walls, that way I don’t have as many supports to work around. then tear down the wall, get a bunch of friends, (beer and pizza are good lures) get them to hold up the beam while you put the columns under it, the snug them up. the use blocking to keep the beam stabil. Now you have somewhere between a 6 and 8 inch header and less columns then if you use wood. If you have access above the wall, (one story and the wall is actually supporting the ceiling and the joists) you can hang or suspend the load. You can build a beam in the attic, directly over the bearing wall, tripled 2×12’s then use steel columns to support the beam, (just as if you were putting in a steel beam) then attach the ceiling joists to the underside of the beam with metal hangars, once the beam is supported and the joists are attached, you can take out the wall, and patch the ceiling. There are other ways to do what you want, but you need to answer all the basics first, then take a look at some load and span tables to decide how many support columns, and how big the beam should be… I blew out a load bearing wall 3 feet in our last home, moved an interior wall 17″ just because my DW said it did not look right, added a second floor to a rancher, removed the interior bearing walls, and transfered the load through steel columns from the second floor all the way to the foundation. And NO I did not hire “professionals” I realized that I can read, and look up tables, I drew my own plans, had them approved by the county permits dept. and the county architect, then started buying materials… Remodeling ain’t rocket science…
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During demo yesterday I realized that the ceiling heights are not the same– I’ll end up with a 8′ foot ceiling in the new “garage” portion of the laundry room, and a 9′ ceiling in the exsiting portion, so putting a beam in won’t matter anyway since I have to have the two different ceiling heights. Wall does run perpendicular to ceiling joists. Thanks for the help everyone!