Knocking Down Walls

People love the feeling of openness in their homes. A lot of times traditional rooms are separated by four cornered walls, but sometimes, walls separate you from the things that are happening in other rooms! There are times that a wall feels more closed in and makes you feel missed out from the fun and family activities. Nowadays, a lot of family wants an open feeling in their home, being able to see the kids or participate in the conversation with friends in the living room or dining area while cooking in the kitchen. Having a nice flow in foot traffic and having the house visually look larger is ideal for a lot of people these days, and one way to achieve these goals is by knocking down few walls that separate one room to another, and give it a new open feeling and smooth flowing. But before you get so excited and start knocking down walls, wait, knocking down walls maybe the design solution to eliminate the cramp and closed-in feeling, but be sure to consult a Structural Engineer first, to verify that the wall you are removing is not a load bearing wall! Bearing walls are functioning integral part of the whole house, so it cannot be easily remove without resupporting everything else that relies on those walls. Bearing walls maybe supporting your whole roof above or your second floor. So if you will blindly remove a load bearing wall without resupporting those loads first, it may cause your roof or second floor to collapse or sag, which you don't want to happen. So before getting so excited above removing those walls in order to achieve those open feeling, make sure that you properly consult with a license Structural Engineer in order to help you decide how to resupport all the existing loads that the existing bearing walls are carrying. Bearing walls or non-bearing walls, there is a way to knock them down, it just have to be done right and properly. One popular way to resupport all the loads of a bearing wall is by installing the right size beams. But beams installation can be a lot of hard labor and heavy task, and needs knowledgeable manpowers. Installing huge beams requires manpowers and requires temporary supports of existing loads while the beams are being placed. If you are willing to spend these extra costs and works of removing a wall or two, you can possibly achieve that open feeling in your home that you are aiming for.

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