Well, me wife wanted me to see i would be able to cut a opening in the wall about 4ft from the bottom and 1 ft from the top.
The pictures are attached. can some one tell me just by looking at it if that wall is a load bearing wall. the roof joist runs parellel with this not perpendicular.
there is a 2nd floor but its only a 1.7 story house. so not a full 2nd floor its more of a attic with 2 bedrooms.
Let me know, Any suggestion would help also
Do i need to put a brace in? the opening will probably measure 6ft by 4 ft
I’d just throw a header in there JIC. Use a pair of 2x12’s and a piece of plywood in between (for thickness) and you’ll be fine pretty much no matter what for that span. Just remember to double up the jack-posts at the ends as well.
Without seeing the roof design it is hard to tell if it is indeed a load bearing wall. I would brace it anyways, there is never a problem over engineering anything.
I’d say go buy 2- 2x8’s to run across the top of the opening, and brace the sides up with 3- 2x4’s on each side.
It doesn’t seem like it would be a loaded wall, but if you have a crazy weird roof it might be.
Boards are always stronger when the longer dimension is vertical.
If you’re opening is 6’ wide; take two 2x12’s, and a sheet of 1/2 in plywood and laminate them together with the plywood in the center to make a beam 12" tall, by 3 1/2" thick (the 2x12 because you said you wanted it ~12" off the ceiling).
Then use 2 or 3 2x4s nailed/screwed together for the vertical posts at the ends; set the beam on top of those.
the dining room has 6in crown molding and i dont want to start taking off the molding, so can i just do 2x6 or even 2x8?
These are are not typical 2x4 i believe and it looks more like 2x8 framed as directly on top of this there is half bath, the 2x8 might be for the toilet pipes towards the back wall.
3.The walls there are plaster walls. so i might as well take off all the plaster and put up drywall?
I’d use drywall, take the plaster down on that entire wall at least.
If your wall is indeed ~8inches deep instead of 4, you can just brace the ends of the composite beam (2-2x8-10-12 & 1/2" ply) with 2x4s to spread the load out. But then your side bracing should be 2x8’s to the floor.
yea i know the drywall will be 90% of the hard work everything looks pretty simple and straight forward. i will post picture of all the progress.
When you do the drywall how does someone do the outside corners? i think that will be my weak area as i dont know what do or use to repair the corner they say use the corner beading. is taht correct?
yea, there’s metal angles with tape already adhered to it for outside corners. Just get the corner tight as possible; apply it, then mudd over the top.
