How to Tell if a Wall Is Load-Bearing: 3 Common Indicators

A support wall, or load-bearing wall, is a common structural element that evenly distributes the weight of upper floors to the first floor below. A structural engineer calculates the best way to support and transfer the load of a building from the trusses of the roof structure all the way down to the foundation.

Exterior walls are typically load-bearing since they are the main support structure for joists (horizontal steel or wood supports for floors or ceilings) as well as the main connection point for internal walls. It can be significantly more difficult to judge whether interior walls are essential to the structural integrity of the building, since drywall often hides the key indicators.

A common mistake in DIY home remodeling of older homes is the planned removal of an interior partition wall that turns out to provide structural support. This error can mean costly repairs of the now damaged drywall or studs.

Engineers and architects design load-bearing walls with a building’s structural integrity in mind; therefore, these walls must remain intact and in place to properly support the building. Even if you don’t have access to your home’s original blueprints you can look for certain signs to determine whether a partition wall is likely load-bearing. Here are three characteristics of load-bearing walls:

1. 1. Beam and header attachment: If you come across a large timber support beam or a glued laminated header (glulam) during your framing investigation, the wall is likely load-bearing. Since these pieces of wood are expensive and design-engineered to withstand load force, they would be a superfluous addition to a non-load-bearing wall.
2. 2. Foundation connection: You might be able to identify load-bearing walls by accessing the crawl space beneath your home. If you find a wall that sits directly on top of the foundation, it is a load-bearing wall. On higher stories, the same goes for any walls that stack directly on that floor’s foundation. In modern framing construction, it is more common to see floor joists attached to vertical and horizontal support beams. If that’s the case in your home, vertical beams might indicate to you that the walls sitting atop them are load-bearing walls.
3. 3. Joist direction: A common method for finding load-bearing walls is to cut back the ceiling drywall where it meets the target wall (the wall you want to remove or alter). Since ceiling joists are commonly spaced sixteen to twenty-four inches, cutting a two-foot-square section should reveal to you which direction the joists run. Parallel joists will often signify a non-bearing wall, whereas joists that run perpendicular are a sign that the wall is bearing the weight of the floor above.

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