removing a wall in a timber frame house Re-generate an old or tired space and give it a fresh breath of life. Click here for answers, information and tips

[jjsingleton101.wanadoo.co]

Iam going to remove a wall in my timber framed house to enlarge my kitchen,as the wall is a partition wall i was under the impression that an RSJ was not requiered.does anybody know if this is the case.Please note that all the walls in the house are partition and the supporting joists run from one side of the property to the other without a break.

thanks phil

[timberframe hero]

Hi Phil,

I would suggest that you make an inquiry into who designed the timber frame for your house, and check which walls are load bearing. More often than not the walls that do not have joist ends landing on them are not load bearing. However this is not always the case. There could be point loads from the roof being transmitted to the ground via a cluster of 2 or more studs within the wall. Also the wall (especially if running laterally accross the building) could be required in the structural calculations for racking purposes (overall stability).

I would strongly recommend that you find out who designed the timber frame and find out for definite. I design timber frame houses for a living and we get similar queries to yours from time to time, and are happy to advise! We also have people calling us when they have taken required structure out of the house asking what to do to make it sound again.

Hope this helps?

Chris