Partial removal of Wall - load bearing?

Hello everyone,

New home owner with a question about removing part of a wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. I have not spoken to any contractors yet, waiting for the bank to approve a loan. I would just like to hear some input from others with similar situations. Likewise, I completely understand and agree with consulting a professional on this matter.

The prior home owner recently upgraded the kitchen and I was fortunate enough to receive construction before/during photos. I would like to remove roughly 3-4' of a wall the extends from the kitchen and into the living room. Please view the images for further detail. In the images you can see the exposed framing in the walls as well as the ceiling.

My concern is that since my home was built in 1959 that the wall may be load bearing. Does this appear to be the case based on the images?

Thanks in advance.

It looks like you will have ceiling joist running across this wall or even joining over this wall .
You have an opening from this wall over to the bedroom, is there a beam of sorts in that area. if one is not there it may be in the attic above with the joist either hung with steel hangers or nailed up with pressure blocks.

It appears that the ceiling joist are TJI's and you need to ascertain whether or not the the CJ's over the living room run the same direction as those in the kitchen.

If they do, the wall is non bearing and unless you are going to rebuild a soffit, you need to drill the top plate and reroute the electrical.

A 6' ladder will do the trick.

Snoonyb said:

It appears that the ceiling joist are TJI's and you need to ascertain whether or not the the CJ's over the living room run the same direction as those in the kitchen.

If they do, the wall is non bearing and unless you are going to rebuild a soffit, you need to drill the top plate and reroute the electrical.

A 6' ladder will do the trick.

Click to expand...

If you click on the first picture and then click it again you get a real close up and you can make out the joists above the strapping.

I'd like to see some better photos.

What's directly above that wall? What's directly below it?

nealtw said:

It looks like you will have ceiling joist running across this wall or even joining over this wall .
You have an opening from this wall over to the bedroom, is there a beam of sorts in that area. if one is not there it may be in the attic above with the joist either hung with steel hangers or nailed up with pressure blocks.

Click to expand...

Well the kitchen has been remodeled before I moved in, so those openings are long closed. Im having a duct/ac guy look in our attic. Maybe persuade him to take some photos. Will more images help out?

Snoonyb said:

I'd like to see some better photos.

Click to expand...

It's all I got during the remodel, it was finished before we moved in. Working on some attic photos.

Snoonyb said:

It appears that the ceiling joist are TJI's and you need to ascertain whether or not the the CJ's over the living room run the same direction as those in the kitchen.

If they do, the wall is non bearing and unless you are going to rebuild a soffit, you need to drill the top plate and reroute the electrical.

A 6' ladder will do the trick.

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for weighing in, could you expand on TJI's and CJ's? Will photos of the attic help determine if the CJ's run the same direction, as you put it?

Nikfrom80s said:

Hey thanks for weighing in, could you expand on TJI's and CJ's? Will photos of the attic help determine if the CJ's run the same direction, as you put it?

Click to expand...

Here is some detail on TJI's;http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=tji&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

CJ is an acronym for Ceiling Joists, and photos of the attic at a diagonal to the area where the wall is to be removed, another panoramic view of that area will shed additional incite.

Do you have a basement or crawl space under, if yest see if there is a wall or beam under that wall.
House built in 1959 with plaster ceiling won't like have TJIs and the roof structure will most likely be hand framed. so we really don't know what to expect.
We will need pictures of anything that lands or sits on that wall in the attic.

nealtw said:

Do you have a basement or crawl space under, if yest see if there is a wall or beam under that wall.
House built in 1959 with plaster ceiling won't like have TJIs and the roof structure will most likely be hand framed. so we really don't know what to expect.
We will need pictures of anything that lands or sits on that wall in the attic.

Click to expand...

No basement sir, not here at sea level in St Pete, FL. No crawl space either since it's block home on a slab. Posting images inside of attic over this weekend. Got a bum leg and need help with that, so waiting for duct/ac guy to take the images.

Thanks for checking in. : )