Walls – Is this wall in the kitchen load bearing

framingload-bearingstructuralwalls

Sorry for another one of these questions but here goes:

My house is a single story bungalow, built in 1976. I can't get hold of the blueprints because the city in which I live does not keep blueprints before 1979. The house has an unfinished basement and has a main support beam running under the width of the main part of the house. I want to renovate the house by opening up the dinning, living, and kitchen. This would involve taking out all of one wall and part of another. The one that will be entirely remove is pretty obviously not load bearing because, among other reasons, it runs parallel to the trusses. However, there is a wall that runs perpendicular to the trusses and it's the one I'm not sure of and wanted to get some advice. Yes I'll be consulting a professional but I'm looking for some preliminary thoughts.

In my diagram below is shown the dinning room, living room and kitchen layout in my house. The two interior walls I want to remove are shown, with the one labelled "Is it load bearing?" being the wall in question. The large area to the left of the interior walls is open from the back to the front of the house with no supporting beam. Trusses run in the direction shown and they are the same across the entire roof. I've verified that the "Is it Load Bearing?" wall has 24 inch-on-centre studs and removing the section I want to remove would mean removing 3 of 5 studs. The wall has a single top plate and does not sit directly over the main support beam in the basement. It sits about 1 ft off that beam.

Any thoughts on whether the wall is load bearing? Is there anything I've missed?

       Ext. Wall
   +----------------------------------------------
   |   Dinning Room     |   
   |                    |
   |         ^          |
E  |         |          |    Kitchen
x  |         |          |
t  |       Truss        |
.  |     Direction      |
   |         |          |    Is it Load Bearing?
W  |         |          +-------------------------
a  |         v
l  |
l  |
   |
   |   Living Room
   +----------------------------------------------
         Ext.Wall

Best Answer

I’m glad “you’re going to consult a professional.”

I’m sure he’ll check: 1) that all the trusses are identical, including the connectors, 2) there are no additional loads on the trusses over the kitchen area, like air conditioner, etc., 3) the floor beam is just for floor loading, (the wall does not need to sit directly over the beam in order to transfer the roof load to the floor beam, 4) the wall that is being removed is not for lateral bracing (are you in a high seismic or wind zone), 5) the perimeter footings are not reduced in size by the kitchen area,

Btw, it’s not just removing the wall...you’ll need to remove/reroute plumbing, electrical, hvac, etc. too.

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