Where can get floor plans for my house that was originally built in 1892?

Question

I am trying to determine weight bearing walls versus non weight bearers so I can make some renovations to an interior room and staircase area.

Answer 1

Chances are there will be no plans and due to the date your house was built, the construction method is likely balloon framing. You need a construction professional such as an engineer or "professional remodeler" to survey this before you proceed. What needs to be done is a survey and load calculations to determine what can and cannot be safely eliminated and incorporated.

Mike Lonergan

TradesProfessional, Inc.

You can remove structural walls if posts and/or beams are used to replace them, but again, you need to know how to or hire someone to calculate loads and what lumbers will be able to be added to compensate or supplement.

Answer 2

An architect or structural engineer could tell you which walls are weight bearing and which aren't.  If you are going to demo walls for your renovation you might be required to obtain a permit, that itself may require plans if the demolition is significant.  

If you decide to go forward yourself many building departments have the as-built plans on file for each house, often on microfiche.  Call your building department to see if this is the case with your city.

When demolishing walls be mindful of electrical lines and any plumbing runs that may be hidden in between, this may affect your design plans as rewiring (and especially re-routing plumbing, if even possible) can be quite costly.

Answer 3

even if there are plans on record at the building dept or courthouse they wont tell you what is load bearing or not you just have to get in there and look

Answer 4

Call your friendly county agent for the building inspector to come out and take a look. He will have to check everything out for approval after work is completed anyway. Just ask when you go apply for your permits. It won't cost anything extra.

Answer 5

It is doubtful you will find plans for a home that old.  It can be difficult to get plans for homes built 20-30 years ago, let alone over 100 years.  Plus I bet there may be may renovations in addition to the original plan.  Also, there may not even been plans to begin with.  Some old farmhouses were built by the original owners from foundation up, no plans.  My house, I doubt they had plans drawn up.

To determine what walls are load bearing, there are some rules of thumb, but not always true.  For example walls that run perpendicular to floor or ceiling joists tend to be load bearing.  But more precisely, walls that carry the end of the joists are load bearing.  And a wall that carries a beam that carries the joists carries a load.  So that wall will likely be parallel with joists, yet still be carrying the load.

What you need to determine is the path of the loads from roof to foundation.  If you can't do it, hire an engineer to do it.  It may cost a few bucks, but it beats doing structural damage.  Then if you determine your changes will interrupt the path, you need to have the engineer design the modification to the structural system, so the change in the path will transferred to the foundation.

Answer 6

I don't know about the floor plans, but if all you want to know is which are walls are load bearing call a good contractor . it will not take him too long to determine that. and probably wouldn't charge over $100.