Our house is a 1973 built ranch on a crawl space type foundation. The depth of the house is 24' wide-ish with trusses running front to back. Through most of the house we have walls going about halfway through the depth, but I'm hoping that I can tear out our pantry & install an island when we replace the flooring. The pantry is the 2x6' block in the middle of the floor plan near the kitchen. Is there an easy way to tell if it's a load-bearing wall? If so, how do we go about taking out the pantry? Do I need to put in posts and headers/footers to spread the load? We intend to leave a soffit for a light fixture similar to the half wall that was knocked down to avoid trying to match the popcorn. http://s58.photobucket.com/alb...current=IMAG0380.jpg

http://s58.photobucket.com/alb...current=IMAG0377.jpg

http://s58.photobucket.com/alb...current=IMAG0378.jpg

http://s58.photobucket.com/alb...current=IMAG0379.jpg

Your question is way beyond me, but I just wanted to say that your dogs are truly beautiful. Is the one on the couch a Shepherd? It's hard to tell. In the second photo, the one on the floor looks like a Husky but doesn't look so much like a Husky in the third and fourth photos. Anyway, great dogs!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GardenSprite,

Thanks Sprite! They're both malamutes. We rescued both of them. The one on the floor is definitely a mix (probably malamute/pitt) and the one on the sofa may be a purebred, though we'll never know for sure as we don't have a good history on either.

probably is load bearing. more than load bearing, as the sectionals down the middle need to have the load from the open center shifted onto them.

one simple trick... figure the direction the floor joists and roof trusses run. load-bearing walls run at right angles to that.

you have a complication in that a large span of roof does not have a wall under it in the load bearing manner, nor apparently a support beam to run the missing weight to the structure inside. likely they used one of two tricks... beam is above the ceiling and the trusses have a different bottom chord... or there is a V-structure shifting the roof weight to the sides.

regardless, you are going to grow a large support beam down the middle, and possibly posts, if you take out the load section of the wall, or you are going to have a nasty accident. since this is apparently a funny configuration, I see it essential that you have a licensed structural engineer draw up a safe and legal way to reduce those load walls. I don't think you're going to eliminate them entirely.

Great looking dogs, and glad to hear they were rescued.
I would say the wall is bearing, but, call the manufacturer to make sure.

I must agree with swscrad - get someone with the know-how to take a look. We tore out some floor to ceiling kitchen cabinets, constructed with pine board and 1x2s. Weren't we surprised when we cut the last 1x2 and the ceiling started sagging at a distressing rate - isn't any rate distressing when the ceiling is coming at you?

Luckily, we had studs on hand to keep the ceiling where it belonged, up there, while we rapidly changed plans to accommodate this "surprise." If the house had been any bigger, we probably wouldn't have been so lucky.

Lesson learned - just because it doesn't look load-bearing, doesn't mean it's not. Who would have thought a "wall" of 1x2s was structural?

And your dogs are beautiful!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: HeyYouJess,

a wall of 1x2s is never structural, no matter how many you jam in there.

whenever you are considering removing a wall, you gotta go upstairs or downstairs to find out if it's running crossways to the joists. if so, any part of it could be supporting structure.

I would also call around for some free bids or even simply call the city inspector to swing by and talk about your life or death resulting question.
He\She would be glad to take a look before you get the required permit initiated.
I use simple free bids on stuff all the time, i get their business card and in the future i sometimes end up finding them some jobs to do. They could take a few looks at the above and below nail heads to determine where support is nailed and will let you know the absolute answer hopefully.

If you go in the attic and see trusses like the below picture then you know its not load bearing.
Your trusses are probably hand framed though and have 3\4 inch boards nailed at the inside peaks and as connectors from 2x6 to 2x6 down the middle.
Perhaps two 14 footers attached together with this 3\4 inch board on each side as we use plates now.
Through the middle will probably be long 10 to 14 foot planks layed flat holding the top from kick out and causing a walkway which shouldn't be walked on actually and should be insulated carefully and never used for storage of course.
This span in the pictures is probably just a 14 footer going across with truss nailed into it with planks and is in fact supported a lot by the center structure in question.
Click here to see picture i mention -> non support truss

This message has been edited. Last edited by: JB Builder,