Removing Non-Load-Bearing and Load-Bearing Walls and Raising Ceilings
A couple of the most common remodeling projects are removing walls and raising ceilings. These projects are certainly more common in houses than in commercial buildings. In houses, the most common type of framing material is wood. Let's talk about walls first.
Some walls are called load-bearing walls; these walls support parts of the structure, such as the roof structure or second-floor structure. Since these walls support other parts of the structure, they are supporting walls. They carry the load from these other parts of the structure, hence the name load-bearing walls. Non-load-bearing walls usually only support the ceiling. However, many times, a portion of non-load-bearing walls is shear walls (also known as braced walls), meaning they provide lateral support to the structure (against wind, earthquakes, etc.).
Both load-bearing walls and non-load-bearing walls are important to the house structure and cannot be removed indiscriminately. To make matters more complicated, the type of roof structure can make it harder to determine which walls are load-bearing and which aren't.
For example, conventionally framed roofs can be framed in several ways: one way is the reliance on ceiling joists to act as collar ties and to span the rafters between exterior walls if the span is short enough. Therefore, the removal of ceiling joists and walls cannot happen until the roof is re-framed correctly.
Another example: if you have roof trusses, depending on the spans and slopes, they may bear on some interior walls. Determining which walls are load-bearing would require examining the truss layout, which is more time-consuming.
If you're doing a remodeling project and want to remove a wall, the question of whether the wall you're removing is a load-bearing wall or not is really not that big of a deal in itself. Just hire A-1 Engineering, and we'll tell you which walls are which. What really matters is whether the wall you're removing has any structural importance to the house; removing it may mean adding beams, more studs at each end, concrete footings, or collar ties to the rafters, etc. Once again, A-1 Engineering can help you with the design of such members.
Another common remodeling project is raising the ceiling, which can be just as tricky as removing walls. However, maybe half the time, you get the perfect condition: simply removing the ceiling joists is good enough if you leave the rafters alone. Sometimes the rafters can't support the extra weight of the gyp board (which was previously supported by the ceiling), so some relatively simple modifications can require you to remove or raise the ceiling all the way to the roof rafters.
Framing Assessments
A-1 Engineering visits your house to look at the wall(s) that you're interested in demolishing/removing. On site, the engineer will determine what type of wall you have. If you're interested in plans (aka blueprints) to know what to do structurally, the engineer will take measurements of the joist and rafter spans, wall height, etc., so we can create the construction plans showing beams, studs, etc for the contractor to follow. Usually, there's a fee for the engineer to visit your house. After the visit, if you need construction plans, we'll be able to tell you what the fee is for developing them. The steps for raising the ceiling are very similar. Give us a call or shoot us an email; we'll be glad to help you on your next project.