Wall Load Bearing In A Bathroom

If you do spot joists in your basement and there is a wall that runs perpendicular this wall is most likely load bearing.

Wall load bearing in a bathroom.

Find these by measuring or by studying a floor plan of your house. Load bearing walls inside the building typically run parallel to the ridge. If you see these nearby internal walls may not be load bearing. Ceiling or floor joists that are spliced over the wall or end at the wall mean the wall is bearing.

However there are cases where a bearing wall is parallel to the joists. Look for the signs of big sturdy wooden or metal structures crossing a room s ceiling and intersecting a wall that you know is load bearing or an external wall like boxy horizontal protrusions crossing the ceiling. In some cases you may not be able to tell for sure whether a wall is bearing. Look at the floor joists if you can see the floor joists either from the basement looking up.

A wall directly above those beams and any walls directly above those walls are probably load bearing. This is extremely true for houses with additions as even though these walls may be interior now they were previously exterior walls and are extremely load bearing. If you are making an 8 ft opening in a load bearing wall you will need an 8 ft header beam designed by an engineer with support posts at each end that are supported by some kind of structure below the floor. Check the foundation if a wall or beam is directly connected to the foundation of your house it is load bearing.

If the wall is parallel above the joists it s most likely not a load bearing wall. The same would be the case if you removed the entire wall but the beam would be much larger. Look for beams or columns often made out of metal running from one side of the room to the other. Go into the basement or the lowest level of a building to identify interior load bearing walls.

Look for these from the attic. If your wall conforms to the situation shown you can be sure it s load bearing. But if the wall runs perpendicular at a 90 degree angle to the joists there is a good chance that it is load bearing.