I know the most sure way to figure this out is to have an engineer look at this but am hoping to get some insight here from someone knowledgeable in this area.
We live in a condo and have a truss roof system. Our unit is 2 stories and is on 1 half of the main roof trusses (the largest ones). There are other little peaks with their own baby trusses around our house over small exterior pop outs and our shower is under one of those small pop outs.
We want to remove the wall that is in the center of this little pop out on the second floor and I’m wondering if there is any chance it is holding any load?
It is running perpendicular to the trusses above it but both trusses also run from each exterior wall and the span is fairly small (8/9 ft) from each exterior side.
This little area only has 3 trusses that it is composed of; the outer most exterior truss, one in the middle and then one on the inner side which is then attached to a larger truss which also becomes an outermost exterior truss further along in the house. (Guessing that is what those metal straps are where those 2 trusses meet up).
In the photos:
1st: close up photo is looking into the mini truss area. It seems the brace is being held up by the exterior wall and not the blue one i want to remove?
2nd: from the outside and the red line is signifying where the wall is we want to remove on the second floor
3rd: : from the inside. The blue is outlining what I want to remove.
4th: The blue arrows are the walls I want to remove. The red boxes are where the exterior parts of the pop out are in the house.
Would there be any chance this little wall could be holding up any of this structure?!
Not looking to be told how bad of an idea this is or how unsafe. I am very aware of the ramifications of taking out a bearing wall. Just looking for advice.
THANK YOU!
.imgur.com/Qoc1d.jpg
Best Answer
Based on the current very top picture there are three main indicators.
#1 - These are directly under and perpendicular to the loaded joists.
#2 - As mentioned in the comments the left part of the wall is under the footings for the truss.
#3 - This is actually the most damning evidence of this being load bearing... The right side of the picture. Two clues here - the brace for the plumbing and the wall of 2x4s. You simply wouldn't worry about a plumbing brace on a non-load bearing wall and you definitely wouldn't squeeze 6-7 2xs at the end of this wall (also a good indicator that this is a point load and the door and over to the right are not of consequence).
Again if you are set on removing you can consult and engineer/architect with full blueprints. I mean normally you don't need this many load bearing walls in a short span so maybe there is a solution but no inspector will allow you to remove it without sign-off.