Check the joists or rafters in your basement or attic.
How to identify a load bearing wall from the attic.
2 look inside the attic if possible to identify the direction in which the rafters or joists travel.
If the wall in.
Load bearing walls typically run in the same direction.
A wall directly above those beams and any walls directly above those walls are probably load bearing.
You will usually find this near the center of the house and running the length of the house.
Take a peek at the instructions on how your house was built.
If the wall in question is parallel to the joists trusses it will likely not be load bearing.
If the wall is located directly under the attic you can go up there to study the positions of the beams and joists.
If there is chances are the walls are load bearing.
When joists trusses are perpendicular to the wall and bear on the top of the wall that wall is bearing wall.
Climb up to the attic.
While the joists and beams of your home are a good start to identify load bearing walls there are other options.
An example of a load bearing wall call be seen on the right.
Look at the floor joists if you can see the floor joists either from the basement looking up.
Due to the triangular shape of all but.
You can usually get a copy of the blueprints from your city or county clerk for a small fee.
Load bearing walls cross roof beams in a perpendicular direction.
If your house has a basement or a crawl space check under the floor for the location of the support beams.
Using this technique you ll get a better idea of the location of the load bearing walls in your house.
If the wall in question is on the second floor look to see if there is a wall in the exact same place on the floor below.
When a support beam is located directly below a wall you can expect the wall to a bearing one.
