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llatour77

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Hello, I'm working on a kitchen dining room remodel. I would like to open a wall between them about 7ft. This wall is loadbearing. I'll give some info on my house. 1915 balloon framing 2story house with a small attic that's converted into a loft bedroom. You can only stand up in the middle of the attic and its about 12' wide. The house is 18' wide and 25 deep. 2 sided roof pitched to outside walls with no roof support in the attic. The wall is on the 1st floor it already has a 30'' doorway in it. This wall runs almost directly over the main girder and has a second floor wall almost directly over it that runs the same way. Above this wall is a 5x7 bathroom and a10x10 bedroom. My 1st and second floor almost mirror each other with the room lay out. 1st floor has a 7x12 kitchen and a 10x10 dining groom My floor joists are 18' 2x8 full length and run directly over this wall. I'd really like to recesses this into ceiling but under the joist is ok too. I've had a few people tell me a tripled up 2x12 should be fine for up to 8' length. I was also told I could go with a 3.5"x11.25" 2.0E LVL for up to 10'. Any more opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Robert
 
i think we could use some pic's id also like to know about the basement and the floor joists
 
Floor joist are 2x8 16" on center. The girder is a 4x10 thats supported by the foundation on one end a brick column thats part of the chimney on the other end. The girder span is 8.5' and it runs almost directly under this wall. The wall is about 6" off centered over this beam. One end of the new header will rest on king and jack studs that go down to the foundation. The other and will land on the floor joist that are over the main girder.

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yes it can be done BUT you need a structural engineer to sign off on what you are going to do as far as recesses this into ceiling can it be done yes is it a good idea that is up to a structural engineer no one here will take on liability with out seeing the whole job. as i am doing the same thing but mine is 16' long and iv got more work before i can redo mine
 
As this is held up with beam below, matching the beam below should not make it any stronger or weaker than it is. Except for the fact that right now the load is sperad over the length of the beam in the basement and now you will have consentrated the load into one area of that beam so I would add another 2x10 to the side of that one full length 3 nails every 16 inches. Your 3 2x10s or 2x12s should be fine. Anything 5 ft and longer need 2 or 3 jack studs under each end. And solid blocking under the floor to the beam below.

In order to bury the beam into the floor you will have to build a temp wall on bothsides of the old wall and ut out enough of the floorjoist to slip the beam up and the hang the floor joist of it with hangers. 2x8 hangers are 1 1/2| wide so if you have wider joists you will have to shop around for some that fit what you have.

As the wall in question isn't directly above the beam below, you have a problem trying to do what I outlined. And that's where you do need the engineer to help with that.
It could be as simple as more joist in the basement from the beam to the outside wall to support the jack and king studs
 
Thanks for the info. The roof is 2 sides pitch down to the sides of the house that the 18' joists go to. Theres nothing in the attic that supports the roof. Its wide open from front to back. Only thing there is the chimney. I added to knee walls and sheet rock. Theres a small floor bed a tv and my son. Its 7' in the middle and it pitched down to a 2' knee wall. No partys going on up there to small. I've been thinking of some option here. I could build a new wall over the girder and bring the jack studs through the floor onto the girder. That would move this wall 6' into my dinning room. I could also pour a footing in the basement and add a post under the floor joist. I could also recesses a 10' header into the ceiling. The one end would go into the back wall of the house. The jack and kings will go down to the foundation. I could build a 4ft wide wall on the other end under the header and still have a 6ft opening.
 
The front part of my house under my living room and hall is supported by a 5x10 that spans 12.5'. The loadbearing wall above this is about 14" off center from the girder. This wall has a 8ft opening in it from when the house was build. This wall just supported by the joists.
 
If you can move the wall over the beam in the basement, that would work. I would still add another ply to that beam down stairs just to be on the safe side. The floor joist have been carrying the load but by putting in a beam and jack stud you would be putting all that load on one joist at each end if they even land on a joist. I guess if you look at it like, if you are taking out 5 studs and taking the weight off five floor joist, you could add floor joists below so you have three under each set of jack and king stud set. And everything sould be back as it was.
 
Heres a fews pics of the project. Its coming along slow but nice. Most work is done after my real job and weekends. I have a bunch of pics of the whole job. I went with a tripled up 2x10. It spans 6ft. One end the load goes down to the foundation with 2x6 studs. The other end goes into a new 2x6 wall I built. That wall over hangs the the main beam of the house by a 1ft. The 4 2x8 floor joist are only 1ft apart under this wall. Theres been no movement at all on the second floor. This weekend Im doing pex floors and having the mud and tile laid. Floors coming up about 2in bettween the 3 rooms to make it all level. Thanks for everyones help

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