Are all walls in a townhome load bearing? Are you allowed to more them?

Question

I am looking at buying my first house. I know absolutely nothing about remodeling. My fiance and me are looking at town home to buy. I am not crazy about the 1st floor, floor plan. It is a two story town home with a basement. The first floor has a very big den, that I would like to Knock out a wall and make it part of the living room which is kind of small. How can we tell if this wall is removable. Do you have the right to tear down walls when it is a town home since it is inside? My fiance's sister says all walls in town homes are load bearing walls so we probably can't do anything about it. Anyone with any knowledge would be helpful.

Answer 1

It is your home and right to remodel.Load bearing walls are no big deal. The joists that are supported by the wall just need to be supported by a beam right under them and two pillars on each side to hold them up.A framer can properly size the beams and pillars.You may have an exposed beam or a soffit hanging down ten inches or so from the ceiling going across it but all walls in buildings can be removed regardless of material or load bearing it just takes some informal engineering.

Answer 2

not all walls are necessarily bearing walls, and stud walls are frequently bearing walls, as in stick-framed houses\buildings. a bearing wall will be perpendicular to floor or ceiling joists above it: the wall will be bearing the weight of the joists. if removing the particular wall will also increase the bearing distance(span) beyond the allowable span for those joists, then the wall is also a required bearing wall and would have to be replaced with the proper sized beam.

you will need to find the direction of the joists above, either by the nailing pattern of the ceiling sheet rock, or looking into a register in the ceiling above, or a floor register on the 2nd floor.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

http://ready.dork.at

you can get much information in this website,stay a minute in website and check anyone link at a time,you can aslo get your answer in Google Search in this website, which has helped me alot

Answer 4

a load bearing wall is normally made of brick or block ..stud or timber walls are not normally ..check whats above it upstairs