DIY homeowners frequently are confronted with the puzzle of dealing with load bearing walls when performing home renovations to their home. Typically they ask questions like; how do I remove a section of the wall and what must be installed to take up the load. These are very good question and the answer is quite simple but the work may not be as simple.

One definition of a load bearing wall is any wall that carries the upper weight of the house through the structure to the foundation and in turn the foundation distributes the weight to the earth beneath it. For example, for a house that is 40 feet long and 32 feet wide there is typically a center beam that can be seen from the basement that passes through the length of the house half way between the walls (16 feet). This beam is a structural support member that basically holds up the middle of the house. It will have steel columns underneath the beam at approximately every eight feet apart.

The center beam will have the floor joist passing over it. The joist will be 2 x 10s in this example because of the 16 foot span. This entire floor network supports the house above. However, located on the first and subsequent floors are additional load bearing walls to carry the weight of the second floor or roof above it. Maintaining these load bearing walls is critical to maintain the structural integrity of the house. They cannot be arbitrarily removed but they can be altered.

Whenever removing a load bearing wall section the load that the section carries must be redistributed. This is typically done by installing a header in place of the wall section. The header is usually made from 2 by X stock, depending on the length. An eight foot open doorway underneath a bearing wall would typically be made from laminated 2 x 8s for a single story house and 2 x 10s for a doorway on the first floor of a two story house.

Before cutting out the section of wall to install a wall header a temporary brace must be installed to carry the load while the header is being installed. The temporary brace can be fabricated from 2 x 4s and stalled a short distance (12 inches) from the bearing wall. After the header is installed the temporary brace is removed.

Making the intended doorway opening level with the ceiling is a little more complicated. The actual ceiling joist must be cut to install the header. Again temporary bracing must be installed while the header is installed. In this case the header must be firmly attached to the ceiling joist using joist hangers so the bearing load can be spread out to the adjoining joist. Although cutting into the floor joist to install a header is quite common I would recommend that a DIY homeowner leave the task to a professional carpenter. However, installing a header in an interior load bearing wall is not a difficult task and is well within the capability of most experienced DIY homeowners.

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