Knocking out walls

[Yesmam]

So there is a wall I want to knock out of my living room but my hubby thinks it might be a main beam. I say so what! How can we figure this out and how can we knock it out if it is?

[healthygal]

To find out if it's a weight bearing wall, you can go into the attic and look to find out if anything is resting on it. If there are beams meeting on it, it's a load-bearing wall and you will have to brace it up if you want to tear it out. I don't know exactly how you would do that if you want to take the wall out completely. Maybe someone could explain that to both of us.

[MdWest]

You would tear down the drywall and expose all the studs, then you use a temporary one or jacks to hold it up as you tear out the others, after that I get lost but I think you would put up another beam all the way across to reinforce then fix the drywall. But you can always go to DIY to get the more accurate info.

[babygirl]

If it is a load bearing wall that isn't something I would do as a DIY project. If you mess up your house can end up on your head. It is definitely something you should at least get the advice of a professional for.

[Yesmam]

I can't get into the attic, it's only a crawl space I think I will get a carpenter in here to see if it's a main beam or not. I don't want it to end up on my head! Ouch! I so hope it's not as I want it out!

[Robertbrown]

Is it in the middle of your house? If it is load bearing then you are just going to have to incorporate at least one column into your remodeling plans, probably two and a beam. If you don't have an attic and your house is 1 story. It's not a big deal but you should figure all that out before you start demo. If the wall is not perpendicular to the roof slope then it's probably not weight bearing, assuming your house is not 2 levels.

[Doug]

I wouldn't mess with it at all if it's load bearing. I'll take the sturdiness of my house over the looks any day. Are there any non bearing walls you can take out?