Additional info:
-Ceiling joists have studs running down directly above floor joists
-Floor joists are 2×10 spanning ~14’ 16OC
-One of the floor joists that will carry the load is doubled and right on the stairs wall
-Wall in question is 20” offset from the basement beam below
-load is just the ceiling joists/drywall
-plan is to burry the header in the attic
City wants an engineer plan that will prove the floor can carry the load or how I can make it carry the load.
-can adding a sister joist to the floor where it isn’t doubled work? Does that sister need to carry the full 14’ span?
I’ve learned that most of the time a load bearing wall in the center of a home (60s ranch in this case) is typically directly over the basement support beam thus transferring the energy of the roof straight down the wall/floor and into the columns/foundation. A wall I want to open up into a kitchen is load bearing (ceiling joists overlap across it) but the basement beam is 1.5-2’ off of being directly below. Does anybody see a problem transferring the load from a 30” opening to a 7’ opening with a new header etc? Wisconsin snow covered 5/12 pitch for reference.
Best Answer
Without seeing any pictures its hard know so they would help. If its a 60's ranch house I would think that the roof is a truss roof and the roof load is on the outside walls. With that said there would be no load bearing walls interior. The purpose for the beam running down through the center of the basement is for floor support because back in the 60's truss roofs were becoming popular but not truss floors, they used 2x6/2x8/2x10 depending on the span and placed them on a steel W beam in the center. Its all guesses without images - but go in your attic to see what type of roof you have, you have to look up before you look down in the basement.