Costs To Remove a Load Bearing Wall:

Maintaining Safety and Structural Integrity

 

 

here are multiple types of walls located within a building. Some of these walls are freestanding and support no weight at all. Other walls are load bearing, meaning they are responsible for supporting the weight of the trusses or joists above them. In most homes, the main load bearing wall runs down the center of the house, along the length of the peak of the roof. Load bearing walls are considered to be a structural component of the home, and great care should be taken when modifying them in any way.

 

Can You Remove Load Bearing Walls?

Because they are a critical structural component of a home, loadbearing walls cannot be removed altogether. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the trusses and joists above them and they prevent the home from buckling and collapsing. If you are remodeling your home, and are planning on removing a wall, then it is important to speak with a structural engineer first, to determine whether the wall is loadbearing, and how much weight that wall is responsible for holding up.

 

How to Remove Load Bearing Walls

You cannot completely remove a loadbearing wall, rather you will need to modify it by replacing it with a horizontal support beam. Prior to removing any wall, you will first need to determine whether the wall contains any plumbing, electrical, or ductwork. If the wall has any electrical, ductwork, or plumbing, then these wires, pipes, and ducts, will need to be rerouted accordingly. This rerouting can easily increase the cost of any project.

 

After consulting with an engineer, you’ll need to decide how exactly to support the upper load once the wall has been removed. The most common way is to support the weight with a horizontal beam along the length of the original wall, with vertical supports at each end. However, if the space above the section of the wall that will be removed supports a lot of weight, then multiple vertical supports may need to be added in between those endpoints.

 

Build Temporary Support

Before you can remove any loadbearing wall, you will need to construct a temporary means of supporting the upper trusses or joists during the removal process. There are a number of ways to do this, however, the most common is to build temporary walls next to the existing wall. Since the temporary walls are not designed to carry as much weight, they should be constructed on the same day that the loadbearing wall is removed.

 

The temporary bracing, or walls, should be constructed on both sides of the loadbearing wall, and no further than 3 feet from the existing wall. The goal is to place them as close to the existing wall as possible, while still providing sufficient room to work comfortably.

 

Just like an internal wall, you will need both an upper and lower plate. While the lower plate can be simple 2x4s, the upper plates should be 2x10s. This larger plate at the ceiling will help to distribute the weight more evenly. Studs will need to be cut and fit between the plates, and if needed, shims should be used to ensure a tight fit.

 

Removing a Load-Bearing Wall

Once you have installed your support bracing, then you can begin removing the existing loadbearing wall. Start by sealing off the work area, to ensure that the debris and dust from the demolition do not spread to the rest of the house. General contractors will use plastic sheeting to separate the work area from the rest of the home. To be on the safe side, the power to the house should be turned off at the breaker, until you are sure there are no electrical wires located within the wall.

 

Start by removing any baseboards from the wall. If you plan on reusing the baseboards, then you should take special care when removing them. From there, you will need to remove the drywall on both sides of the wall. The easiest way to remove the drywall is to break a hole in the wall between 2 studs, from ceiling to floor, to check if there are any wires in the wall. From there, you can simply use a reciprocating saw to remove the rest of the drywall.

 

Once the drywall has been removed, it is time to remove the studs. If you have a sledgehammer, then you can simply strike the stud where it meets the bottom and top plate, to break it loose from the nails. If you do not have a sledgehammer, then you can carefully cut these studs in half, then pry the house off the plates with a prybar. After you have removed all of the studs, you can then remove the floor and ceiling plates.

 

Installing the Load-Bearing Beam

Finally, you need to install the loadbearing beam. You can either purchase a header beam that has been precut to your specifications, or you can build your own. This beam will need to be supported at each end by a king stud. The king stud is a vertical stud that runs from the base plate to the ceiling plate, and if you merely removed a center section of the loadbearing wall, then you can use any existing studs as the king stud.

 

You will also need to cut and install jack studs, which will be placed under each end of the loadbearing beam, to support its weight. In some cases, multiple jack studs may be needed. If there is a gap between the top of the loadbearing beam and the ceiling plate, then you will also need to cut and install cripple studs at regular intervals.

 

Once the loadbearing beam has been properly installed, and the jack studs are in place, the temporary bracing can be removed. Generally, the building inspector will need to see the new loadbearing beam, before you can remove any of the temporary bracings. This inspection is important because it ensures that the upper levels of the home are properly and safely supported.

 

Cost to Remove a Load Bearing Wall

Although it is possible to remove a loadbearing wall and replace it with a loadbearing beam, it can be quite expensive. For the average homeowner, a short loadbearing wall can be removed and replaced with a beam for less than $3,000. However, if the home is more than one story tall, then that price can quickly increase due to the size of the beam needed to support the weight. Homeowners can expect to spend anywhere between $3,000 and $10,000 for homes with multiple floors. This does not even take into consideration the cost of rerouting wiring, plumbing, and HVAC ducting.