In the bathroom, I discovered the double sole plate of a short wall are rotted out. The wall length is 2 feet long and its the wall the door closes on. The entire wall including the door is just over 5'. The rotted plate is about 18" of the 2' section.
The studs on the plate are either rotted or starting so I plan to cut 6" past the affected area and add new studs and sisters.
The studs are perpendicular to the above ceiling joists. Naturally, I'm assuming they're load bearing, though I'm not positive. An adjacent double sole plate (parallel to the ceiling joists) is not load bearing.
My question is regardless if the wall is load bearing or not, do I need to support the wall/ceiling? It's only 18" of a 5' wall. I'd rather "ask now" than "should've asked".
The house is 67 years old, cape cod style with crawl space eaves sitting above the wall in question.
Best Answer
It's always better to be safe than sorry. Is that section of wall supporting the roof? If it is only supporting a single joist a 2x4 under that joist should be enough to keep everything in place while you cut and replace everything.