Today's Lesson: How to remove a bearing wall - Flipper Method

[cevans (Chuck Evans, CMI)]

Today’s miracle of engineering - making a 1957 ranch an open floorplan at minimal cost because you’re going to stick someone else with it.

The old lumber used to be under compression because they used to transfer the roof load to the bearing wall. The new lumber is under tension because the roof is now supporting itself and the joists whose ends are now floating over the middle of the ceiling. The creative use of brackets is pure artistry.

Enjoy!

[jfrederick (Joshua Frederick)]

Alarmist.

[sfetty (Dave Fetty, CMI)]

Nice!

[rmayo (Randy Mayo, P.E.)]

Good marketing material as to why you need a good home inspection, possibly a good lawyer.

[mgoldenberg (Marc Goldenberg, Inspector # HI1365)]

@cevans

Today’s miracle of engineering - making a 1957 ranch an open floorplan at minimal cost because you’re going to stick someone else with it.

The old lumber used to be under compression because they used to transfer the roof load to the bearing wall. The new lumber is under tension because the roof is now supporting itself and the joists whose ends are now floating over the middle of the ceiling. The creative use of brackets is pure artistry.

Enjoy!

Deal Killer!

[phudak (Philip Hudak, CPI)]

Wow! :shock:

[jmckee (James McKee)]

what did the ceiling look like below ?

[plesieur (Paul Lesieur, CMI)]

A thing of rare beauty.

[drange (Dave Range, CMI)]

@jmckee

what did the ceiling look like below ?

I was wondering what the rafters looked like.

Did you walk it, Chuck?

[cevans (Chuck Evans, CMI)]

@jmckee

what did the ceiling look like below ?

Expansive and wavy. It was a just recently completed flip. I expect it will look different in a few months.

[cevans (Chuck Evans, CMI)]

@drange

I was wondering what the rafters looked like.

Did you walk it, Chuck?

Two of us walked the roof earlier. Surprisingly, there was no significant visible deflection and it didn’t feel springy. There were multiple cracked rafters throughout the attic.

Walking inside the attic, I elected to stop short of the first “floating” joist.

FWIW here’s how I described it

The house appears to have been recently remodeled and one or more bearing walls removed to create an open floor plan. These changes affect the structural support for the ceiling and roof above. These structural modifications appear to have been performed without qualified engineering input and design. No beam has been installed to carry roof and ceiling loads and transfer those loads to the foundation. Rather, a hodgepodge of dimensional lumber has been erected in the attic above in a shoddy, amateurish and haphazard manner. We did not traverse the attic past the spliced joists for safety reasons. We strongly advise that a qualified, licensed, structural engineer be retained to design an appropriate support structure and a plan for implementation. We expect significant structural problems involving the ceiling and roof over the family room area to develop if this is not corrected.

[jmckee (James McKee)]

@cevans

Expansive and wavy. It was a just recently completed flip. I expect it will look different in a few months.

expansive and wavy…nice…that sounds pleasant…