Expert: Dan Griffin - 9/8/2009

Question
I have a L shaped wall dividing my kitchen and dining room that I want to remove.   The long side runs parallel to the floor joists and perpendicular to the rafters above (one story house).  Its about 5 ft long.  The short wall runs perpendicular to the floor joists and parallel to the raftes and is about 3.5 ft long.  In the corner there is a large cutout/shelf that leaves only about 3 ft on the long wall and 2 ft on the short wall of solid wall.  There are also 2 main beams in the basement supported by steel posts.  Neither wall sits directly over either beam.    The roof has a very mellow slope to it.      Is it safe to assume that neither of these walls bears weight??

Answer
Nick, this one sounds a bit unusual.  Floor joists, ceiling joist, and roof rafters usually all span the same direction.

If this is a single story and you have access to the attic, you can see if the ceiling joists or any roof bracing is using either of the walls you want to remove.  If they are trusses, you do NOT need the walls.  If the ceiling joists break on the wall, you can carry them with a header underneath or hang them from a "header" type beam in the attic.  The only way the wall(s) can be load bearing is to have an overhead load depending on them, merely touching is not the issue.  Ceiling joists from 2 directions that cannot make the total span and are spiked together over your wall or purlin braces supporting some part of the roof rafter system are the only way these walls can be load bearing.

I am confused by the change of direction and would appreciate hearing back from you as to the condition.