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How to tell if load bearing or not?

Posted by Andrew Doughty, on Sat 22 Jun 2013 10:47am

I have a c1900 victorian terrace house with flooboards on joists running front to back. I am redesigning the top floor and plan to move the wall between the front and back bedroom. The loft is directly above with two large watertanks. Below are three floors with walls that have open access between the front and back rooms (so half the wall is missing). How do I tell if the wall I want to move is bearing the load of the loft and water tanks or whether the loft joists are bearing all the load?

Chris Plastow

Sat 22 Jun 2013 04:54pm

It is hard to tell sometimes. The joists will bare part of the load of the tanks but only for a short span, they will then be supported by a close by wall. It is too risky to take advice from anyone that has not inspected the exact circumstance .

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